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ISAIAH 



A STUDY OF CHAPTERS I. XII. 



BY 

H. G. MITCHELL 

PROFESSOR IN BOSTON UNIVERSITY 




NEW YORK: 46 East 14TH Street 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 

BOSTON : 100 Purchase Street 



Copyright, 1897, 
By H. G. MITCHELL 




Nortoooti ^ress 
J. S. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



GO 



IN RECOGNITION OF 
HER SYMPATHY AND ASSISTANCE 
IN ALL MY UNDERTAKINGS 



PREFACE. 



The favor with which my little book on Amos 1 was 
received has emboldened me to undertake a more diffi- 
cult task; viz. the interpretation of parts of the book 
of Isaiah. 

This work, like the preceding, has grown out of 
lectures delivered to my classes in the School of Theol- 
ogy. I have simply expanded them, and arranged their 
contents in a way to make them useful, not only to can- 
didates for the ministry, but to other even less advanced 
students of the Bible. 

The plan, too, of this book is essentially the same as 
that of its predecessor. This one has none of the sup- 
plementary studies found in the other. There is, how- 
ever, a good reason for their absence. They could not 
well be written until I had finished my studies in the 
prophecies. They will appear in a second volume on 
chapters xiii.-xxxix., if I am spared to complete it. 

In one respect I think that I have improved upon my 
original plan. I have come to the conclusion that the 
style of most commentaries not only confuses the 

1 Amos : an Essay in Exegesis. Boston, 1893. 
5 



6 



PREFACE. 



reader, but sometimes actually distorts the meaning of 
the sacred writers. I have, therefore, in this book, 
more completely than in the other, abandoned it, and 
undertaken to present my interpretation of the words of 
Isaiah, or his editor, in the form of a continuous discus- 
sion, which, I trust, will be found more nearly correct 
as well as more readable. 

In the preparation of the book I have consulted all 
the leading "authorities" on my subject, and many of 
less reputation ; but, since the object of references is not 
to display the breadth of an author's reading, but to 
help his readers to a more exact knowledge and less 
partial conclusions, I have made them only when I 
thought that they would be of value. My method has 
been, as a rule, to name the authors of the more im- 
portant critical suggestions mentioned, but not to quote 
an authority for an interpretation for which a given 
passage, its context, or any other source of information 
bearing upon it, seemed to me to furnish sufficient evi- 
dence that the average student would understand and 
appreciate. On the other hand, I have felt it my duty 
to give the name, either of the originator, or a worthy 
representative, of any theory or interpretation men- 
tioned only to be rejected, that such as cared so to 
do might give it further examination 

I need not apologize for not pointing the Hebrew 
words in the notes unless they were liable to be mis- 
understood by one somewhat familiar with the language 



PREFACE. 



7 



of the Old Testament ; nor for following the growing 
fashion of citing books by the initials of the principal 
words in their titles. I have not, however, as some late 
authors seem to me to have done, carried the practice 
of abbreviating in citations so far as to disfigure the 
printed page and hinder any but the expert reader in 
getting a knowledge of its contents. I should dislike to 
have my book mistaken for a collection of conundrums. 

The number of books used in the preparation of this 
volume should not be taken as an indication of the size 
of the outfit required for the study of Isaiah. The 
average student really needs but few of them. If he 
reads the original, he will of course have a good gram- 
mar and lexicon. In addition he should ' have a Bible 
dictionary, and one or two independent works on ancient 
history and the geography of Palestine. He should 
also provide himself with Driver's Introduction to the 
Old Testament and Cheyne's Introduction to the Book 
of Isaiah. The most useful commentaries accessible in 
English are those of Skinner, Orelli, and Delitzsch, 
and, if one wishes to go into a comparative study of 
opinion, that of Alexander. One who is familiar with 
German should have the critiques of Giesebrecht and 
Hackmann, and the commentaries of Duhm and Diil- 
mann, especially the former. 

H. G. M. 

Boston University, June, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface .......... 5 

Books and Authors cited ...... 9 

Introductory Studies . 15 

Isaiah the Prophet 15 

The Times of Isaiah . . . . . . -31 

The Prophecies of Isaiah 48 
Translation and Comments ...... 60 

Translation 60 

Comments „ .81 

Indexes 257 

8 



BOOKS AND AUTHORS CITED.* 



TRANSLATIONS AND COMMENTARIES^ 

Aben Ezra; 1155; Eng., The Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah, Fried- 
lander, London, 1873. 

Alexander, J. A., Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, 3 vols. 8vo, 
Edinburgh, 1865. 

Barnes, Albert, The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, 3 vols. 8vo, New York, 
1840. 

Barth, J., Beitrdge zur ErkTdrtmg des Jesaia, Karlsruhe, 1885. 
Bredenkamp, C. J., Der Prophet Jesaia, Erlangen, 1887. 
Brenz, Johann, Esaias Commentariis explicatus, Frankfurt, 1 550. 
Buhl, Frants, Jesaja, Copenhagen, 1894. 

Calvin, John, Co?nmentarii in Isaiam Prophetam, Geneva, 155 1 ; Eng., 

Pringle, Edinburgh, 1 850. 
Cheyne, T. K. The Prophecies of Isaiah? New York, 1884. 
Delitzsch, Franz, Commentar iiber das Buck Jesaia?- Leipzig, 1889; 

Eng., The Prophecies of Isaiah, Edinburgh, 1890. 
de Dieu, Louis, Animadversiones in Veteris Testamenti Libros omnes, 

Leyden, 1648. 
Dillmann, August, Der Prophet Jesaia , 5 Leipzig, 1890. 
Doderlein, J. C, Esaias, 8 Altorf, 1789. 
Duhm, Bernh., Das Buch Jesaia, Gottingen, 1892. 
Eichhorn, J. G., Die Hebr'dischen Propheten? Gottingen, 1816-19. 
Ewald, Heinrich, Die Propheten des Alten Bundes, 2 Gottingen, 1867. 
Gesenius, Wilh., Commentar iiber den Jesaia, Leipzig, 1821. 
Henderson, E., The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, London, 1840. 
Henry, Matthew, An Exposition of the Old and A T ew Testaments, London, 

1710; New York, 1876. 

* The great versions are not included in the list, 
t These are always cited by the name of the author. 



9 



10 



BOOKS AND AUTHORS CITED. 



Hitzig, Ferdinand, Der Prophet Jesaia, Heidelberg, 1 833. 

Jerome, Commentarii in Esaiam Prophetam, 410; Opera, IV. ed. Vallar- 

sius, Verona, 1734 ff. 
Kautsch, E., Die Heilige Schrift des Allen Testaments, Freiburg i/B, 

1892-94. 

Kay, W., The Bible Commentary, V. Isaiah, London and New York, 
1871-81. 

Kimchi, David (d. 1235); Lat., Commentarius in Jesajam, Malanimeo, 

Florence, 1774. 
Knobel, August, Der Prophet Jesaia? Leipzig, 1861. 
Koppe, J. B., lowttis Jesaias, Leipzig, 1779-81. 
Lowth, Robert, Isaiah, London, 1778; Boston, 10 1834. 
Luzzatto, S. D., 77 Profeta Isaia, Padua, 1855. 

Michaelis, J. D., Uebersetzung des Alten Testaments, VI., Gottingen, 
1777-86. 

Nagelsbach, C. W. E., lange's Bibelwerk, Der Prophet Jesaia, Bielefeld, 

1877; Eng., Lowrie & Moore, New York, 1884. 
von Orelli, C, Kurzgefasster Kom?7ientar, IV., Der Prophet Jesaia, Nord- 

lingen, 1887; Eng., The Prophecies of Isaiah, Banks, Edinburgh, 1889. 
Reuss, Eduard, Das Alte Testament, II., Braunschweig, 1892-94. 
Rosenmuller, E. F. C, Scholia in Vetus Testamentum? III. 1, Leipzig, 

1829. 

Saadia, Gaon (d. 942) ; P. Saadiae Versio Jesaiae Arabica, Paulus, 
Jena, 1790. 

Skinner, J., The Cambridge Bible, Isaiah, Cambridge, 1896. 
Smith, G. A., The Expositor's Bible, The Book of Isaiah, London and 
New York, 1890. 

Umbreit, F. W. C, Praktischer Commentar iiber den Jesaia? Hamburg, 
1846. 

Vitringa, Campegius, Commentarius in Librum Prophetiarum Jesajae, 

Leeuwarden, 1714-20. 
Zwingli, Ulrich, Coniemplationes Isaiae Prophetae, Zurich, 1529. 



BOOKS AND AUTHORS CITED. 



11 



OTHER WORKS* 

Bathgen, Friedrich, Beitrdge zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte, Berlin, 
1888. 

Baudissin, W. W., Studien zur Semiiischen Religionsgeschichte, Leipzig, 

1876 and 1S78. 
Beecher, W. J., Journal of Biblical Literature, 1892. 
Bickell, Gustav, Carmina Veteris Testamenti, Innsbruck, 1882. 
Bottcher, Friedrich, Ausfiihrliches Lehrbuch der Hebr'dischen Sprache, 
Leipzig, 1866 and 1868. 

Neue Aehrenlese zum Alten Testament, Leipzig, 1863. 
Brown, Francis, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1 890. 
Budde, Karl, Zeitschrift fiir Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1 89 1. 
Cheyne, T. K., Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, London, 1895. 
Cobb, W. H., Journal of Biblical Literature, 189 1. 
Conder, C. R., Tent Work in Palestine, London and New York, 1878. 
Cornill, C. H., Einleitung in das Alte Testament, Freiburg i/B, 1891. 

Der Israeliiische Prophetismus, Strassburg, 1 894; Eng., The Proph- 
ets of Israel, Chicago, 1895. 
Zeitschrift fiir die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1884. 
Davidson, A. B., Hebrew Syntax, Edinburgh, 1894. 
Davidson, Samuel, Introduction to the Old Testament, London, 1862. 
Delitzsch, Friedrich, Wo lag das Paradies ? Leipzig, 1881. 
Driver, S. R., Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament? London 
and New York, 1894. 

Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel, Oxford, 1890. 
Use of the Tenses in Hebrew? Oxford, 1892. 
Duncker, Max, Geschichte des Alterthums? Leipzig, 1878-79; Eng., His- 
tory of Antiquity, Abbott, London, 1877-82. 
Durell, David (d. 1775), Manuscript on the prophets, quoted by Lowth. 
Ewald, Heinrich, Ausfiihrliches Lehrbuch der Hebr'dischen Sprache des 

Alten Testaments? Gottingen, 1870. 
Frere, J. H., Works, New York, 1874. 

Fiirst, Julius, Librorum Sacrorum Veteris Testamenti Concordantiae, 
Leipzig, 1840. 

Der Kanon des Alten Testaments, Leipzig, 1868. 

* The grammars are cited by the abbreviated names of their authors, the rest by the 
names of their authors, usually with the initial letters of the principal words in their 
titles. 



12 



BOOKS AND AUTHORS CITED. 



Geikie, Cunningham, The Holy Land and the Bible, London, 1887; New 
York, 1888. 

Gesenius, Wilhelm, Hebrdische Gra?n?natik, ed. Kautsch, 25 Leipzig, 1889; 
Eng., E. C. Mitchell, Boston, 1894. 

Hebr'disches mid Aram'disches Handwdrterbiich ilber das Alte Tes- 
tament, ed. Miihlau-Volck, Leipzig, 1886. 
Novus Thesaurus Linguae Hebraeiae et Chaldaeae Veteris Testa- 
menti; 1 Leipzig, 1829-58. 
Giesebrecht, Friedrich, Beitr'dge zur Jesaiakritik, Gottingen, 1890. 
Guthe, Hermann, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina- Vereins, 1882. 

Das Zukunftsbild des Jesaia, Leipzig, 1885. 
Hackmann, H., Die Zukunftserwartung des Jesaia, Gottingen, 1893. 
Hengstenberg, E. W., Christologie des Alten Testaments, 2 Berlin, 1854-57; 

Eng., Christology of the Old Testament, Edinburgh, 1854-59. 
Herodotus (d. 408 ±), History, Rawlinson, London, 1858. 
Houbigant, C. F., Biblia Hebraica, Paris, 1753. 

Jastrow, Morris, Jr., Zeitschrift fur Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1896. 
Josephus, Flavius (d. 103 ±), Opera, ed. Bekker, Leipzig, 1855; Eng., 
ed. Whiston-Shilleto, London, 1890. 

Journal of Biblical Literature, Boston. 

Kamphausen, Adolf, Die Chronologie der Hebr'dischen Konige, Bonn, 
1883. 

Kellner, M. L., The Prophecies of Lsaiah, Cambridge (Mass.), 1895. 
Kittel, R., Geschichte der Hebrder, Gotha, 1888 and 1892; Eng., A History 

of the Hebrews, Taylor, Hogg, and Speirs, London, 1895-96. 
Klostermann, August, Kurzgefasster Kommentar, III., Die Bucher Sam- 

uelis u. der Konige, Nordlingen, 1887. 
Kocher, D., Vindiciae Textus Hebraei Essaiae, Bern, 1786. 
Konig, F. E., Historisch-Krilisches Lehrgebaude der Hebr'dischen Sprache, 

Leipzig, 1881 and 95. 
Krochmal, Abraham, Haksaw Wehamiktow, oder Schrift und Umschrift, 

Lemberg, 1875. 
de Lagarde, Paul, Academy, 1870. 

Semitica, Gottingen, 1878. 
Layard, A. H., Lnscriptions in the Cuneiform Character, London, 1 851. 
McCurdy, J. F., History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, London and New 

York, 1896. 

Meyer, Eduard, Geschichte des Alterthums, Stuttgart, 1884 and 1893. 
Mitchell, H. G., Amos, Boston, 1893. 
Andover Review, 1891. 



BOOKS AND AUTHORS CITED. 



13 



Miiller, August, Hebr'dische Schulgrammatik, Halle a/S, 1878; Eng., 
Outlines of Hebrew Syntax ; Robertson, Glasgow, 1887. 

Olshausen, Justus, Lehrbuch der Hebr'dischen Sprache, Braunschweig, 
1861. 

Peters, J. P., Journal of Biblical Literature, 1885. 

Piepenbring, Ch., Theologie de I'Ancien Testament, Paris, 1 886; Eng., 
Theology of the Old Testament, H. G. Mitchell, Boston, 1893. 

Porter, F. C, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1895. 

Ragozin, Z. A., The Story of Assyria, New York, 1893. 

Rawlinson, George, The Story of Ancient Egypt, New York, 1894. 
The Story of Phoenicia, New York, 1893. 

Riehm, E. C. A., Handwdrterbuch des Biblischen Altertums, Bielefeld and 
Leipzig, 1884. 

Robinson, Edward, Biblical Researches in Palestine? Boston, i860. 
Roorda, T., Orientalia, Amsterdam, 1840. 

Scheid, E., Specimina Philologico-crilica, Harderwijk, 1779-80. 
Schrader, E., Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testa?nent, Giessen, 1 883; 
Eng., The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, White- 
house, London, 1885 and 1888. 

Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, Berlin, 1889-96. 
Keilinschriften und Geschichtsforschung, Giessen, 1 878. 
Schroder, N. W., Cotnmentarius de Vestitu Mulierum Hebraearum, 
Leyden, 1745. 

Seeker, Thomas (d. 1768), Manuscript notes, quoted by Lowth. 
Siegfried and Stade, Hebr'disches Worterbuch zum Alien Testament, Leip- 
zig, 1892-93. 

Smith, George, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, ed. Sayce, New York, 
1880. 

Smith, G. A., The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, London and 
New York, 1894. 

Smith, William, Dictionary of the Bible, ed. Hackett, Boston, 1881. 
Smith, W. R., Journal of Philology, 1884. 

The Prophets of Israel, Edinburgh and New York, 1 882. 
Stade, Bernhard, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Berlin, 1887-88. 
Studer, G. L., Jahrbucher fur Protestantische Theologie, 1877-81. 
Thenius, Otto, Theologische Studien und Kritiken, 1846. 
Thomson, W. M., The Land and the Book, New York, 1886. 
Tide, C. P., Babylonisch-Assyrische Geschichte, Gotha, 1886-88. 
Toy, C. H., Quotations in the New Testament, Boston, 1884. 
Tristram, H. B., The Natural History of the Bible? London, 1873. 



14 



BOOKS AND AUTHORS CITED. 



Usher, James, Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti, London, 1650-54. 
Valentiner, Fr., Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 
1858. 

Van Lennep, H. J., Bible Lands, New York, 1875. 

van de Velde, C. W. M., Syria and Palestine, Edinburgh and London, 
1854. 

Weir, D. H. (d. 1876), Manuscript notes, quoted by Cheyne. 
Wellhausen, Julius, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, V., Berlin, 1892. 
Wickes, William, Hebrerv Prose Accents, Oxford, 1887. 
Wilson, Warren, etc., The Recovery of Jerusalem, London, 1871. 
Winckler, Hugo, Altorientalische Forschungen, Leipzig, 1893. 

Alttestamentliche Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1892. 

Untersuchungen zur Altorientalischen Geschichte, Leipzig, 1 889. 
Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 
Zeitschrift der Detitscheit Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft. 
Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina- Vereins. 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 
I. 

ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 

The earlier Hebrew prophets were born and bred in 
comparative seclusion. Samuel was a native of Ramah 
in Benjamin. Elijah came from an obscure place in 
Gilead ; Elisha, from one equally obscure in the valley 
of the Jordan. The home of Jonah was at Gath-hepher 
in Zebulon ; that of Amos, at Tekoa, on the edge of the 
desert of Judah. Moses, if, as is fitting, he be reckoned 
the first and greatest of them all, was really no excep- 
tion ; for, although he was reared at the court of Pha- 
raoh, he went to his great task of delivering the Hebrews 
from bondage only after forty years in the solitudes of 
the Sinaitic peninsula. The last-mentioned fact suggests 
that the early experience of Moses' successors also was 
divinely directed. At least, one can see how their seclu- 
sion would prepare them for the work to which they 
were destined. It would naturally prevent them from 
becoming involved in the sinful ideas and practices 
in which their people were prone to offend. It would 
also afford them leisure and opportunity to become ac- 
quainted, by such means as were provided, with the will 
and ways of Jehovah. In view of all this, — the history 

r 5 



16 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



of the previous prophets and its apparent adaptation to 
the accomplishment of the divine purpose, — it seems 
strange to find that, so far as is known, Isaiah had no 
such experience. He was probably born, as well as 
reared, at Jerusalem. At any rate, when he entered 
upon his mission, he was living in the city (vii. 3), and 
from that time, so long as one can trace his activity, he 
remained among its inhabitants (xx. 2 f., xxxvii. 2, etc.). 

This prophet is further distinguished from his prede- 
cessors by his standing in the society of the day. Tra- 
dition says that he was " of the house and lineage of 
David," being a cousin of Uzziah ; and that his daughter 
became the wife of Uzziah's great-grandson, Manasseh. 
These statements are probably products of the rabbinical 
imagination, but there are indications that he was well 
connected. One proof of it is the fact that he was 
evidently, for the times in which he lived, carefully edu- 
cated. He was acquainted with the literature of his 
people, especially the works of Amos and Hosea, on 
which, at the outset of his career, he had formed a style 
at once vigorous and attractive.* A second fact points 
in the same direction ; viz, that, from the first, he seems 
to have been treated with peculiar consideration by all 
classes of his people. He approached Ahaz unhindered 
in the eyes of the whole city ; and, although the king 
declined to take his advice, he accepted the rebuke that 
followed in silence, and let the prophet go unpunished 
(vii. 13 ff .). Perhaps it was fear of his personal disap- 
probation that led those in charge of affairs, on this and 
other occasions, to conceal from him the policy that they 
were pursuing (xxx. 1 ff., xxxix. 1 ff.); but it is more 

* On the relation of Isaiah to Amos see the author's Amos, 203 f. 



ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 



17 



probable that he early acquired such influence at Jerusa- 
lem, that, in court circles, he was not unjustly regarded 
as the leader of a party which might prove powerful 
(viii. i6ff.). 

The mention of the so-called prophetical party sug- 
gests another peculiarity in the relation of Isaiah to his 
times. The work of most of the prophets who had 
gone before him had been more or less spasmodic. 
When there was a crisis in affairs one of them had 
suddenly appeared, taken a hand in the settlement of it, 
and then as suddenly retired to his previous pursuits. 
Isaiah, on the other hand, from the date of his call to 
the prophetic office until the end of his life, a period of 
at least thirty-five, and perhaps fifty, years, was con- 
stantly in the public eye. He himself recognized this 
as his divinely appointed position; for he said (viii. 18) 
that not only he, but each of the children whom Jehovah 
had given him, was intended to be a sign and a token in 
Israel. Sometimes he went further than simply to stand 
for an idea, or declare the word of Jehovah as he had 
opportunity, and resorted to more sensational methods ; 
as, e.g., when he went naked and barefoot in illustration 
of the fate awaiting Egypt and Ethiopia (xx. 2), thus, 
doubtless, while he impressed some, exposing himself to 
the ridicule of the majority of his fellow-citizens. 

Isaiah himself explains why he was so long and so 
continuously active. In the wonderful chapter (vi.) in 
which he describes his call, he represents himself as 
appalled by the result that he was instructed to expect 
from his mission, and as exclaiming in his despondency, 
" O Lord, how long ? " The answer was, that he was 
to prosecute his calling until the country had been 



IS 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



reduced almost to an uninhabited desert, in preparation 
for the new nation into which the remnant preserved 
would finally develop (nff.). Here, as the prophet, 
if not at once, very soon, realized, was a task to be 
accomplished, not by a single effort, however enthusias- 
tic, but only by years of ceaseless devotion. He was 
not deceived ; for, although he labored in season and 
out of season to fulfil his mission, his life was nearing 
its close, when, at length, he saw his prayers answered, 
and his aspirations for his people to some extent 
realized. 

There is a tradition that he long outlived the vindica- 
tion of his claim to inspiration, — to see Hezekiah suc- 
ceeded by Manasseh, and the fear of Jehovah almost 
smothered by authorized idolatry. The latter king, 
indeed, is said to have sawn him asunder because he 
opposed the reaction (Asc. of Isaiah i-v.). Heb. xi. 37 
has been supposed to refer to this bloody deed ; and 
the people of Silwan to-day profess to know the very 
spot, at an old mulberry tree on the opposite side of 
the Kidron, just below the Pool of Siloam, where it was 
perpetrated. Still, it is doubtful if there is any founda- 
tion for the story ; for, if any such fate had befallen 
the prophet, the author of the books of Kings, who 
surely cannot be accused of sparing Manasseh, would 
have mentioned it in his indictment (2 Kgs. xxi. 1 ff. ; 
2 Chr. xxxiii. 1 ff.), and there would be something from 
that period in the collected works of Isaiah. It is more 
reasonable, as well as more agreeable, to believe, that 
God took him while he was enjoying the too brief 
recognition by which his services in the Assyrian crisis 
were rewarded. 



ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 



19 



It is no easy task to analyze such a character as that 
of Isaiah. One is awed by its grandeur, and baffled by 
its symmetry. Still, the question will arise, whether he 
had not peculiar qualities which made his magnificent 
career possible. The task must, therefore, be attempted. 

It is impossible to read the story of Isaiah's life with- 
out being impressed with his remarkable equanimity, — 
that balance of mind which prevents or minimizes the 
effect of sudden changes of fortune, and thus preserves 
to one the use of all one's faculties, when a perfect 
command of them is most important. There are several 
striking instances of the display of this quality re- 
corded of Isaiah. If the record were complete, there 
would doubtless be many more. 

One of these was in connection with the attack upon 
Judah by the allied kings of Syria and Israel. These 
two monarchs, it is related, for some reason resolved to 
remove Ahaz, and put a creature of their own upon the 
throne of David. In fact they prepared an expedition 
for this purpose, and made some progress toward its 
fulfilment. The Jews, including their young king, were 
thrown into such consternation that they imagined the 
enemy already approaching, and at once began to pre- 
pare for the expected assault upon their capital. At 
this crisis Isaiah appears on the scene (vii. 3 ff.). Ahaz 
is outside the city, making provision against a disturb- 
ance of the water supply. The prophet approaches. 
He seems in no haste ; but comes, leisurely leading a 
tottering child, his first-born, Shear-yashub. His first 
words are in harmony with his bearing. He rebukes 
the bustling monarch for his excitement, and entreats 
him to be quiet. One can imagine Ahaz, in reply, 



20 



IN TROD UCTOR Y STUDIES. 



describing the danger and insisting upon the necessity 
of the utmost despatch, lest he should be surprised and 
overpowered by the hostile kings. " These two smok- 
ing stumps of firebrands!" says Isaiah, in derision; 
and proceeds to assure the king that his fears are 
groundless. There is more of the story, but the rest 
only confirms the impression made by the beginning, 
that, in the Syrian crisis, the prophet was the coolest, 
if not the only imperturbed, person in Jerusalem. 

At this time Isaiah was a young man. Many years 
later his equanimity was even more severely tested. It 
was when the great king Sennacherib had overrun Judah 
and pushed his conquests to the very gates of Jerusalem 
(2 Kgs. xviii. 13 ff. ; Isa. xxxvi. iff.). Hezekiah, who 
had now succeeded Ahaz, was naturally greatly fright- 
ened. Not so Isaiah; as the story makes abundantly evi- 
dent. His perfect composure is implied in the fact, that 
he did not take any notice of the threats of Sennacherib 
until Hezekiah had called his attention to them. Then, 
however, not content with soothing the fears of the lat- 
ter, he treated the threats of the former with scorn and 
derision. Could there be a more perfect picture of self- 
possession than this old Jew, sitting quietly in his house 
and defying the greatest earthly monarch in existence ? 

It may be objected that the conduct of Isaiah under 
the circumstances described can be explained as an 
effect of inspiration, without supposing him peculiarly 
endowed by nature ; but the point is not well taken : 
for, if it were, the prophets would all have shown them- 
selves equally self-possessed under such circumstances ; 
which, as every one who has carefully read their writ- 
ings knows, is contradicted by their own utterances. 



ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 



21 



A second characteristic of Isaiah is sagacity. A little 
reflection will convince one that he was highly endowed 
in this respect. 

The office of the prophet was to stand between Jeho- 
vah and his people, and interpret the will of the one to 
the other. It might, therefore, be either positive or 
negative ; but most of the prophets a record of whose 
words is preserved, seem to have emphasized the latter, 
rather than the former, part of their duty. Nathan will 
serve as an example among the earlier ones. There 
are three great occasions on which he appears in bibli- 
cal history : when David proposed to build a temple to 
Jehovah (2 Sam. vii. 4 ff.) ; when he appropriated 
Uriah's wife (2 Sam. xii. 1 ff.); and finally, when 
Adonijah proclaimed himself his successor (1 Kgs. i. 
11 ff.); — and every time with a veto. In other words, 
he is represented simply as a censor in morals as well 
as in politics. The prophets generally confined them- 
selves to this role ; usually appearing when things were 
going wrong, to denounce the sins and blunders of the 
people or their rulers, and then retiring until another 
protest was necessary. Thus the appearance of a 
prophet early began to be regarded as an evil omen. 
Did not the elders of Bethlehem tremble when Samuel 
visited their little city (1 Sam. xvi. 4)? It was doubt- 
less sometimes charged, that they delighted in finding 
fault and foretelling misfortune. The author of the 
book of Jonah seems to have intended to represent that 
prophet as harboring some such disposition (iv.). Ahab 
went farther, and accused Micaiah of wresting the word 
of Jehovah to his disadvantage (1 Kgs. xxii. 8, 18). 

In his earlier prophecies, Isaiah, following the exam- 



22 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



pie of his predecessors, especially Amos, attacked the 
evils of his time, seemingly without giving much thought 
to practical suggestions for the benefit of his people. 
It was not long, however, before his individuality, stimu- 
lated by the divine Spirit, asserted itself, and he began 
to supplement his denunciations with positive and con- 
structive efforts. When he began his ministry the most 
urgent need of the nation was protection against its 
hostile neighbors. He counselled a defensive neutrality 
(vii. 4 ; xxx. 1 5) ; and, when one considers the position 
of Juclah, just off the highway between Egypt and 
Assyria, one cannot but feel, that, had his advice been 
followed, the subjugation of his people would have been 
postponed, if not entirely prevented. He also labored 
to remove the internal evils which he condemned, and 
he seems to have succeeded in some measure ; for there 
is little doubt that he was the means of Shebna's down- 
fall (xxii. 15 ff.), and that the reforms in religion under 
Hezekiah (2 Kgs. xviii. 4ff.) were due to his influence 
(Cornill, PI, 67 f.). Finally, as has already been inti- 
mated, he made provision for the future of the Ideas 
that he taught by planting them in the hearts of a 
chosen company of disciples. To their faithfulness the 
nation owed its deliverance from Sennacherib and its 
more thorough reformation under Josiah. In fact, it is 
claimed, and with reason, that, in this little band of 
believers, the Church of God, as a distinct institution, 
had its origin (WR Smith, PI, 274 f.). These considera- 
tions seem to warrant the assertion that Isaiah was en- 
dowed above most, if not all, of the other prophets, with 
the practical ability " to guard against the designs of 
others, and to turn everything to the best possible 



ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 



23 



advantage/' or, in other words, to make everything 
further the cause of God in Israel. 

The most prominent trait of Isaiah's character re- 
mains to be noticed. It is his hopefulness. By this is 
meant more than the Jews intended when they said that 
his book, and every part of it, was full of hope and com- 
fort (Fiirst, KAT, 25 f.). It means, not only that his 
message to his people was in the main hopeful, but that 
he was by nature fitted to be the bearer of such a mes- 
sage. This is apparent from his treatment of it. 

In the first place, there is a significant touch in the 
account of his call. When Jehovah asked, " Whom 
shall I send ? " he replied without hesitation, " Here am 
I, send me ; " but when he learned what the nature of 
his message was to be, he exclaimed, " O Lord, how 
long?" as if, although he dared not refuse to deliver 
it, he shrank from acting the part of a prophet of evil 
(vi. 8 ff.). 

There is a second indication pointing in the same 
direction. It is found in the name given to his (pre- 
sumably) eldest son. This boy must have been born 
not far from the time of his father's call. Whether his 
birth occurred before or after that event, it is impossible 
to determine. In either case the name given him is 
significant; especially so if, as is the more probable 
opinion, it was bestowed after the prophet had received 
his commission. Recall the situation. He had been 
charged with a message whose effect, he was assured, 
would be to confirm his people in their sins and expose 
them to the consuming fury of their God. It is doubtful 
if there was anything in his original instructions which 
gave him reason to expect that any of them would be 



24 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



spared. He would not, however, abandon hope ; but 
sought, and finally found, ground for believing that 
mercy would in the end triumph over justice, and pub- 
lished his faith to the world in the name that he gave to 
his first-born, Shear-yashub, — A-remnant-shall-return. 

Years passed, and, although there were times when 
the fate of Israel seemed sealed, the prophet never 
doubted the outcome. In fact, his faith appears to 
have fed upon the difficulties which it encountered; 
and when he was vouchsafed a glimpse of God's gra- 
cious purpose, he portrayed it in such glorious colors 
that the world has not yet ceased to wonder. These 
inspiring pictures of the future, in which Israel, re- 
stored, is to be governed by a second and diviner 
David, and Paradise is to be regained, also betray a nat- 
ure in which hopefulness is the dominant characteristic. 

Such was the man Isaiah. If, however, these were 
his characteristics, it is easy to see why he should have 
been chosen the ambassador of Jehovah to his genera- 
tion ; — easy, too, to understand how he became the 
tower of strength that he was to his own, and that he 
has since been to each succeeding generation, in its 
distresses. 

Such are the personal ; what are the literary charac- 
teristics of the prophet ? 

Here, again, at first sight, there seems room for little 
but admiration. Most writers who have referred to 
the style of Isaiah, therefore, have been content with 
pronouncing him the greatest master of the Hebrew 
tongue.* This is true; still, it can hardly be said of 

* For an example of the way in which the subject has generally been 
treated see Ewald, PAB, I. 278 ft. 



ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 



25 



his works, that, from every standpoint from which such 
productions can be viewed, they are unsurpassed ; for 
there certainly are others in the Old Testament, which, 
at least in respect to form, come nearer to the ideal ; so 
that it would be more nearly correct to say of him, that 
in the essentials of literary excellence he has no peer 
among Hebrew writers. Moreover, this can be true 
without implying that, in all these essentials, his excel- 
lence is equally conspicuous. It is, therefore, after all, 
not presumptuous to inquire, if his style has prominent 
peculiarities, and, if so, which are the most prominent. 

One who reads the undoubtedly genuine prophecies 
of Isaiah with an eye to their literary character, is first, 
perhaps, struck with their conciseness. He will notice, 
that they are not a single homogeneous production, but 
a series of addresses on various occasions, complete in 
themselves, the longest of which could be delivered in 
less than ten minutes. He will next observe the com- 
pleteness, in spite of the limits imposed, with which the 
themes discussed are treated. The first chapter, e.g., is 
a marvel of condensation. It is a complete manual of 
religion ; setting forth the relation of God to his people, 
the duties growing out of that relation, the errors to be 
avoided, and the results of obedience and disobedience 
to the divine will; — and this, not in the dry, abstract 
terms of a theological system, but in concrete pictures 
which the simplest soul can understand and appreciate. 

It is easy to see why Isaiah should have adopted this 
style, at least for his written utterances. The history 
of Palestine during his life was a series of crises. He 
therefore had little leisure, when moved to speak or 
write, to prepare formal discourses ; and the people, less 



26 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



inclination to heed such productions. A short, pithy 
speech, or a tract of similar character, spoken or posted 
in the gate or at the sanctuary, was much more attrac- 
tive and efficacious. He adapted himself to the times. 

A little study discloses also how he contrived to say 
so much in so few words. In the first place, his writ- 
ings abound in epigrammatic sentences. There are 
scores of them. In fact, there is no other Hebrew 
author who furnishes the reader with so many quotable 
sayings. Good specimens are found in i. 13, hi. 12, v. 22, 
and viii. 19. Things of this sort are remembered, and 
passed from mouth to mouth. One can imagine the 
people of Jerusalem stopping one another on the street, 
to tell and hear the latest from the prophet. This, of 
course, was precisely what he desired and intended. 
He therefore often put these sayings into the forms 
most agreeable to those whom he wished to reach. 
The oriental delights in paronomasia. Isaiah now and 
then played upon words ; with what success a few 
examples, the force of which is lost in the English ver- 
sion, will illustrate. To Ahaz, when the king was losing 
his faith in Jehovah, he said what might be rendered, 
"Confide not, abide not" (vii. 9), and furnished his dis- 
ciples with a watchword. Of the rulers he said, " He 
looked for redress, and lo distress ; for restraint, and lo 
complaint" (v. 7): and probably the persons at whom 
the shaft was aimed never forgave him. 

A still more interesting class of passages are such as 
i. 31, v. 18, and xxviii. 20. They owe their attractive- 
ness to the metaphors which they contain. There are 
many such passages. Indeed, any one who will take 
the trouble to make the comparison will find that, 



ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 



27 



although he uses both, Isaiah prefers the metaphor to 
the simile. But, if this is the case, there can be no 
doubt that he cultivated conciseness. 

The style of Isaiah is remarkable also for its vivid- 
ness, i.e. the distinctness, in spite of the conciseness, 
with which the ideas to be conveyed are expressed. 
This effect is produced partly by the use of certain 
rhetorical figures. Among them is interrogation. In 
some cases, e.g., v. 4, x. 8 f., and xxviii. 9, the answer is 
so evident that the reader is left to supply it. In others 
the question is simply an introduction to the declara- 
tion which the prophet wishes to make. So, e.g., x. 3, 
xiv. 32, and xxiii. 7 ff. In his account of his call he 
introduces the dialogue (vi. 8 ff.). It is clear that this 
figure is calculated to stimulate attention, and, if not 
too often employed, to emphasize the thought ex- 
pressed. Isaiah uses it freely, but not, like Jeremiah, 
so frequently as to weaken its effect upon his style. 

The same effect is produced by antithesis. This is 
a characteristic feature of Isaiah's writings. Examples 
occur on every page. A good one is found in i. 18 ff., 
where sin and purity, with their causes and conse- 
quences, are contrasted. See also hi. 24 and viii. 6 f . ; 
in the latter of which, two fine metaphors are con- 
trasted. These are but specimens : there are many 
others equally striking. Moreover, the tendency to 
heighten the effect of an idea by contrasting it with 
its opposite, appears, not only in individual statements, 
but in larger sections of the prophet's works. The 
vividness of i. 10-17 an d xx ^- 16-19, e.g., is largely 
due to the skilful application by their author of the 
principle of contrast. 



28 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



Conciseness and vividness are virtues in any writer, 
but they are doubly commendable when they are com- 
bined with richness of diction. This last, also, is one 
of Isaiah's characteristics. He surpasses all other 
Hebrew authors in the variety and abundance of the 
literary material at his command. 

The first item to be mentioned in an inventory of 
his resources is his vocabulary. One gets an impres- 
sion that it must be large and varied from the number 
of words used by him but once, and never by any other 
writer. The proportion of such words in his writings 
is larger than in any other parts of the Old Testament, 
except the short books Habakkuk and Canticles. This 
impression is confirmed by further investigation ; for it 
will be found, that, in the passages whose genuineness 
is generally admitted, he uses about fifty-five per cent 
more words than are found, e.g., in the same number 
of verses in the latter part of the book called by his 
name.* Finally, it should be observed that he does 
not affect archaic words or forms, but evidently puts 
his crowding thoughts into the language of the life 
about him. 

The richness of Isaiah's style appears also in the 
number, variety, and elegance of the literary ornaments 
that he employs. In fact, there is hardly a rhetorical 
figure that is not illustrated in his writings, and of some 
there are scores of examples. The use that he makes 
of paronomasia and interrogation has already been 
noticed. Related to the former is alliteration. It 
occurs with some frequency, but there is never any 

* The above calculation is based on the analysis of Duhm, according to 
whom the number of genuine verses is 293. 



ISAIAH THE PROPHET. 



29 



apparent effort to produce such combinations. For 
good examples see xvii. 10 and 12, xxi. 16, and xxii. 5. 
In the fourth of these passages, perhaps, a climax is 
intended. This is certainly the case in ii. 7 f., which 
is also one of several places where Isaiah indulges in 
hyperbole. 

These are the most important figures of speech, so 
called, used by the prophet. Of the figures of thought, 
the metaphor has already been mentioned as a favorite 
with him. He does not, however, neglect the fuller 
simile. In fact, there is no other Hebrew writer who 
uses it more frequently or effectively. Moreover, in 
his use of it, he displays a remarkable breadth of 
knowledge and experience. Of course, being a native 
of Jerusalem, he shows perfect familiarity with urban 
life in his figures; e.g., in v. 25 and xxx. 13 and 29; 
but, like other healthy and vigorous thinkers, he seems 
to have found his best illustrations in nature and the 
life of the country. Hence his prophecies abound in 
glimpses of natural phenomena, like those in vii. 2, 
ix. 17/18, and xxviii. 2 ; or of the simple pursuits and 
interests of his rural countrymen, like those in i. 30, 
xvii. 5 f., and xxxi. 4. Add to these the similes drawn 
from history, such as are found in i. 9 and xvii. 9, and 
the result is a collection of examples, which, for number 
and excellence, it would be difficult to match in any 
literature. The remaining figures of thought are al- 
most all used with more or less frequency by Isaiah ; 
but none of them deserves especial mention except the 
parable, of which there are two examples, — one in 
v. 1 ff., and the other in xxviii. 23 ff. The former is 
interesting, not only for its beauty and fitness, but also 



30 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



because there are several imitations of it in the Old 
Testament, and two in the New (xxvii. 2 ff. ; Jer. xii. 
ic f. ; Ps. Ixxx. 9 ff. ; Matt. xx. 1 ff. ; xxi. 33 ff.). 

The richness of Isaiah's style makes his prophecies 
a constant source of literary as well as religious enjoy- 
ment. To be sure, there are places where one must 
confess to finding an excess of it ; e.g., in the mixed 
metaphors of xiv. 29 and xxviii. 1 5, the confused similes 
of v. 24 and xvii. 13, and the perplexing combination of 
metaphors and similes in xxx. 27 f. : but, as the prophet 
never dwells on these figures, he so soon recovers him- 
self that the usual clearness of his language is only 
slightly disturbed. 

It is clear, that Isaiah lived in an ideal world and 
spoke the language of the imagination ; in other words, 
that he was a poet. But he was an oriental poet ; and 
oriental poets allow themselves greater liberty than is 
permitted occidental singers. Their poems, therefore, 
like the products of the looms of the East, are apt to 
be characterized by a freedom of design and execution 
that furnishes an almost endless succession of delight- 
ful surprises. So it is with Isaiah's poetry. He seems 
not to have permitted himself to be trammelled by met- 
rical considerations, but freely to have lengthened and 
shortened his lines and strophes to suit the flow of his 
thought.* The result, as in the case of the illustra- 
tion, after one has recovered from the strangeness of 
this oriental freedom, is a continually recurring pleasure 
in the unexpected forms in which he clothes his ideas. 

* Thus, in the song at the beginning of the fifth chapter, there are 
twenty lines : two with three words each; six with four; four with five; 
six with six; and two with seven. Compare FBrown, JBL, 1890, I. 92 f. 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



The importance of Isaiah's position and character as 
elements of power has already been noticed. It re- 
mains to call attention to the additional advantage 
which his literary outfit gave him. This surely must 
have been very great. The sinners whom he rebuked 
cannot have received his denunciations as calmly as 
they would have listened to less masterful descriptions 
of their corruption and its consequences. One can 
even imagine the enemies and oppressors of his coun- 
trymen wishing that Jehovah had a less eloquent rep- 
resentative. On the other hand, what a cordial to his 
friends and disciples, when they were ready to faint 
under the stress of misfortune or persecution, it must 
have been to hear him tell the things that were in store 
for the remnant of the chosen people ! Do not men 
still delight to clothe their hopes for the kingdom of 
God in his language ? 

Such was Isaiah, — a great man and a great poet; 
and, as such, one of the noblest instruments ever 
chosen of God to declare his will, and advance his 
kingdom, among men. 



II, 

THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 

The title of the book called by the name of Isaiah 
says that he lived and prophesied in the reigns of 
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. The contents 
of the book show that this statement, whoever may 



32 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



have been its author, is correct. Thus, e.g., there can 
be little doubt that ii. 6 ff . reflects the state of things 
under Uzziah and Jotharn, and less, that vii. belongs 
to the reign of Ahaz, and xx. to that of Hezekiah. If, 
however, one would thoroughly understand these re- 
markable prophecies, the date of the prophet must 
be more exactly determined, and the circumstances 
under which he wrote considered. 

It is now generally admitted that the reign of Uzziah 
began, and ended, considerably later than was formerly 
believed. Usher made him succeed his father Amasiah in 
810, and give place to his son Jotham in 758 B.C. This, 
however, cannot be correct, if, as is asserted (2 Kgs. xv. 
17), he was a contemporary of Menahem of Israel ; since 
the latter, according to both Hebrew (2 Kgs. xv. 19)* and 
Assyrian (Schrader, KA T, 223 f.)f testimony, paid tribute 
to Tiglath-pileser III., who did not come to the throne 
until 745. Moreover, the same Assyrian king seems 
to have received tribute from Uzziah himself some time 
after this date. { Most modern authorities, therefore, 

* Here, as Schrader was the first to discover (KGF, 422 ff.), Pul is evi- 
dently but another name for Tiglath-pileser III. See Schrader, KAT, 
227 ff.; Ragozin, SA, 207 f. 

f The annals of Tiglath-pileser III., for the eighth year of his reign, 
read, "The tribute of Kustaspi of Commagene, Resin of Damascus, Mena- 
hem of Samaria, Hiram of Tyre," etc. See Schrader. KAT, 223 f.; 
KB, II. 30 f. 

% This statement is based on two fragmentary inscriptions, in one of 
which tribute is said to have been taken from a king of Ia-u-di and the 
la-u-da-ai, the end of whose name is ia-a-u; and in the other, from one 
the beginning of whose name is Az-ri-a. In the latter the name Az-ri-ia~ 
a-u occurs, also, as that of one to whom a part of Hamath had revolted 
(Schrader, KB, II. 24ff.). Schrader (KA T, 217 ff.) identifies the Aza- 
riah of both fragments with Uzziah, who is so called in 2 Kgs. xv. I ; and 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



33 



put the end of Uzziah's reign as late as 740 (Driver, 
'Duncker, Delitzsch, etc.), and some four or five years 
later (Kamphausen, Meyer, Buhl, etc.); and, if he 
reigned fifty-two years, his last cannot have been much, 
if any, earlier than 735. The most serious objection to 
this date is, that, since Ahaz is known to have been 
on the throne in 734, there is very little room left for 
Jotham ; who, according to 2 Kgs. xv. 33, ruled sixteen, 
or, according to 2 Kgs. xv. 30, twenty years. But this 
objection is met by supposing, as there is good reason 
for doing, that this king, during almost the entire 
period of his alleged reign, was regent for his unfortu- 
nate father ; or, as 2 Kgs. xv. 5 expresses it, " over the 
household, judging the people of the land." 

Ahaz is said to have come to the throne at twenty 
and to have reigned sixteen years (2 Kgs. xvi. 1). If, 
therefore, the date of his accession is, at the latest, 
740 B.C., he cannot have been succeeded by Hezekiah 
before 725. Here are new difficulties. In the first 
place, the first of Hezekiah would thus be, not the third 
(2 Kgs. xviii. 1), but the sixth, of Hoshea of Israel; and 
Samaria must have fallen in the third, and not in the 
sixth (2 Kgs. xviii. 10), year of the Judean king. 
Secondly, this result is contradicted by 2 Kgs. xviii. 13, 
where the date of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, 

supposes the operations therein described to belong to a date between 
742 and 740 B.C. Winckler (AF, I. I ff.) has undertaken to show that 
the words Ia-u-di and Ia-u-da-ai of the first fragment, which have been 
supposed to mean Judah and the Judean, are really designations for a 
region in northern Syria — the "H^ 1 of inscriptions recently found at Sin- 
jirli — and its ruler; but such a coincidence in the case of two countries 
and their rulers is hardly possible. See McCurdy, HPM t I. 413 ff.; comp. 
Cheyne, I£I, 4; Kittel, HH, II. 335 f.). 



34 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



which took place in 701, is said to have been the four- 
teenth of Hezekiah ; i.e., if his first was 725, 712, seven 
years before the Assyrian monarch came to the throne. 
The first of these discrepancies cannot be remedied; 
the second can, by lengthening the reign of Ahaz from 
sixteen to twenty-one years. His last would thus be 
714, and the fourteenth of Hezekiah would synchronize 
with the invasion in question. 

There is another reason for preferring the later to 
the earlier dates for the kings mentioned. In the sixth 
chapter Isaiah says that he saw the vision in which he 
was called to the prophetic office in the year of Uzziah's 
death. At that time, if one may judge from his lan- 
guage, he must have been at least twenty-five years old. 
He would thus, according to Usher, have been at least 
eighty-three when Sennacherib attacked his country; and 
more than ninety-eight when, according to tradition, 
he was put to death by Manasseh. Now, while it is not 
impossible that he lived to so great an age, there is, as 
has been shown, no reliable evidence to that effect; 
and his latest prophecies seem too virile to be the utter- 
ances of a man much above sixty. 

When Isaiah began his career, Judah was entering 
upon the stormiest period of its existence. For half a 
century, under the prudent and vigorous administration 
of Uzziah and his son Jotham, it had prospered, and 
at last, the work of Jeroboam II. being largely undone 
by internal strife, outstripped all its neighbors. The 
industrial and commercial activity of its people had 
been rewarded by abundant wealth ; and the military 
enterprises of its rulers, by increased political impor- 
tance (ii. 7 ; 2 Chr. xxvi. f .). The death of Uzziah, 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



35 



although for years he had not governed his kingdom 
directly, seems to have demoralized the Jews and 
robbed them of their prestige in western Asia. At 
any rate, about this time they found themselves assailed 
from various quarters, but most seriously threatened by 
the renewed hostility of Syria and Israel (2 Kgs. xv. 37). 

The biblical historian represents this state of things 
as a direct infliction by Jehovah, but the student of the 
events of the period will easily find secondary causes 
for it. Tiglath-pileser, upon his accession, gave his 
first attention to the recovery of Babylonia and the 
restoration of Assyrian authority among the tribes to 
the east and north of him. This done, in 742 he began 
operations in the West. He spent five years in north- 
ern Syria, three in subduing Arpad, and two more 
in reconquering parts of Hamath that had revolted. 
His success so impressed the neighboring peoples that 
their rulers hastened to make submission ; Resin of 
Damascus and Menahem of Samaria, according to the 
record already quoted, among them. 

This was in 738 b.c. Menahem, who needed the 
support of the great king (2 Kgs. xv. 19), seems to have 
remained loyal to Assyria. So, also, Pekahiah his son. 
The latter, however, had reigned but two years, when 
Pekah, son of Remaliah, overthrew and succeeded him 
(2 Kgs. xv. 25). The followers of Pekah are described 
as Gileadites. They were doubtless representatives of 
a patriotic party, whose object was the liberation of 
their country from Assyrian domination. Pekah at once 
proceeded to carry out their programme. He refused 
to pay the tribute imposed upon his predecessors, and 
entered into an alliance with Resin, who by this time 



36 



IX TR OD UCTOR Y STUDIES. 



had repented of his submission, to maintain their inde- 
pendence. Moab, Ammon, Edom, Philistia, and Phoe- 
nicia appear to have been drawn into the agreement. 
Judah, for some reason, was not ; and this fact suffi- 
ciently explains the hostility toward it shown by the 
Syrians and the Israelites, and finally, according to the 
Chronicler (2 Chr. xxviii i/f.),* by the Edomites and 
the Philistines. 

The Chronicler represents the Jews as suffering very 
severely in this war, especially after the accession of 
Ahaz. The parallel passages in the books of Kings and 
Isaiah (2 Kgs. xvi. 5 ; Isa. vii. 1) tell a somewhat differ- 
ent story; but they agree in testifying that Ahaz was 
so thoroughly frightened that, in spite of a protest by 
Isaiah, he appealed to Tiglath-pileser for protection. 
The Assyrian king did not need the costly present that 
accompanied this appeal, to induce him to heed it. 
Having, doubtless, already planned such a campaign, 
he at once set an army in motion, and, by the end of 
734, had seriously crippled Pekah and forced Hanno of 
Gaza to take refuge in Egypt, f At the end of three 

* According to Klostermann, 2 Kgs. xvi. 6 should read, " At the same 
time the king of Edom restored Elath to Edom," etc. 

f The precise date of Pekah's overthrow it is difficult to determine. In 
2 Kgs. xv. the invasion of Tiglath-pileser and the conspiracy of Hoshea 
are related in successive verses (29 f.). The annals of the Assyrian king 
also describe the devastation of northern Israel and the change in its rulers 
in the same connection. In the latter case, however, these two events are 
separated by the humiliation of Hanno. Of his operations against Israel 
the Assyrian king says: "The city Ga-al . . . [A]-bi-il . . . above the 
land Beth-omri . . . the wide, in its entire extent to the territory of 
Assyria I added. I placed my officers as governors over it." In the 
second paragraph he says : " The land Beth-omri . . .' with their goods to 
Assyria I transported. Pekah, their king, I slew, and Hoshea I placed as 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



37 



years he had conquered Syria (2 Kgs. xvi. 9)* and 
compelled the remaining members of the coalition in 
one way or another to acknowledge his sovereignty.! 

The death of Tiglath-pileser, which occurred in 727 
B.C., was followed by another uprising in the west of the 
empire, in which Israel was prominent ; but when Shal- 
maneser IV., the successor of Tiglath-pileser, appeared 
on the scene, he speedily frightened Hoshea into submis- 
sion (2 Kgs. xvii. 3). This, however, was not the end 
of the matter. The next year Hoshea, relying on the 
help of Shabaka, who had recently (728) made himself 
master of Egypt, % again rebelled. Shalmaneser promptly 

king over them. Ten talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver ( ?) : ... 
I received, and to Assyria I transported them." See Schrader, KA T, 
255m; HB, II. 30 ff. In another fragment (Lay. 66) he says: "On my 
former expedition I subdued all the cities, Samaria excepted." This state- 
ment shows that Israel was twice invaded, and makes it probable that 
Pekah was not displaced by Hoshea much, if any, before 732, when the 
war with Syria had been brought to a successful termination. See 
McCurdy, HTJI, I. 372 ff.; Tiele, BAG, 233ft'. Comp. Winckler, AU, 
126 ft., who holds that the expedition against Hanno was entirely uncon- 
nected with the Syrian war, which did not open until 733 B.C. 

* The Assyrian annals contained a detailed account of the conquest of 
Syria; but the remains of it are so fragmentary that it is possible to gather 
therefrom only that the country was thoroughly devastated. See Schrader, 
HAT, 260ft. 

f Ahaz, according to 2 Kgs. xvi. 10, went to Damascus to meet Tiglath- 
pileser, and thither, doubtless, the other princes mentioned by the Assyr- 
ian king as submitting brought their tribute. See Schrader, HA T, 257 f. ; 
HB, II. 20 f. Ahaz appears in this list as " Ia-u-ha-zi" i.e., Jehoahaz, 
" of Judah." 

% According to 2 Kgs. xvii. 4 the king of Egypt at that time was So. 
This name is probably, as Schrader (HAT, 269 f.) suggests, to be pro- 
nounced Sewe (^"?), and the person who bore it identified with the Sibu 
(Schrader, Shab'i) of the Assyrian inscriptions. Sibu, however, is called 
by Sargon the tartan, i.e., viceroy, of Egypt (Schrader, HAT, 396 f.; HB, 



3S 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



reappeared, and, before the Ethiopian could interfere, 
defeated and captured Hoshea (2 Kgs. xvii. 4), and 
invested Samaria. He died before the city was taken; 
but it finally, in 722, surrendered to Sargon II., who 
undertook to prevent any further trouble from it by 
deporting many of the inhabitants and supplying their 
places by importations from Babylon.* His policy was 
not altogether successful, for again in 720, as he him- 
self relates, Samaria joined a league headed by Iaubidi 
of Hamath, of which Damascus also was a member. 
At the same time Hanno, king of Gaza, who had mean- 
while regained his throne, supported by a strong body 
of Egyptians, took the field against the Assyrians. The 
Hamathite was first overthrown and his allies scattered. 
Then Sargon advanced to meet the combined Egyptians 
and Philistines. The battle took place at Raphia, on 

II. 54 f.) ; and expressly distinguished from Pharaoh, king of the country. 
It is probable, therefore, that So and Shabaka are not the same person, 
but that the former is one of the princes of lower Egypt through whom 
the negotiations with Hoshea were conducted. See McCurdy, HPM, I. 
422 f.; Winckler, UAG, 92 f.; comp. Schrader, KAT, 269 f.; Ragozin, 
SA, 243. 

* The following is Sargon's own account of the matter : " Samaria I 
besieged, I captured. 27,290 of its inhabitants I carried off. Fifty char- 
iots from their midst I appropriated. The rest I allowed to retain their 
goods (?). My governor over them I placed, and the tribute of the former 
king I imposed upon them." See Schrader, KAT, 272 f.; KB, II., 54 f. 
On the date see Beecher, JBL, 1892, II. 211 ff. 

Tyre also seems to have been concerned in this uprising. At any rate, 
Sargon claims to have "pacified" it (Schrader, KB, II. 42 f.). It is 
probable, however, that the story of Shalmaneser's operations against it, 
which Josephus (AJ, ix. 14, 2) claims to have copied from Menander, is 
really an account of Sennacherib's later attempt to subdue it. See McCurdy, 
HPM,II. 282; Meyer, GA, I. 433 ff., 466 f. ; comp. Rawlinson, SP, 136 ff.; 
Tiele, BAG, 237 f. 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



39 



the southern border of Philistia, and resulted in the 
defeat of the allies, the capture of Hanno, and the sub- 
mission of the surrounding peoples.* The king of 
Egypt renewed his submission in 715, also the Arabs, 
some of whom Sargon at that time added to his previous 
importations into Samaria. f 

There is no evidence that Judah was concerned in any 
of the uprisings thus far described.! Indeed, so long 
as Ahaz lived, although its people must, at times, have 
been strongly tempted to make common cause with 
their neighbors, they seem to have remained loyal to 
Assyria. Hezekiah, however, when, in 714, he came to 
the throne, appears to have yielded to the influence of 
an Egyptian party and adopted a different policy. An 
opportunity to test its wisdom soon occurred. Azuri, 
king of Ashdod, meditated rebellion, and called upon 
the surrounding rulers to help him. He was deposed ; 
but, in 711, his people, instigated thereto by roving Hit- 
tites, and relying on the assistance of the Egyptians, 
dethroned his brother and successor, and asserted their 
independence (xx. 1). The Philistines generally did the 

* Sargon describes the battle and its results as follows : " Hanno, king 
of Gaza, with Sibu (Sewe), tartan of Egypt, advanced to offer me battle 
and contest at Raphia. Their overthrow I accomplished. Sibu, fearing 
the din of my arms, fled, and his retreat was not to be found. Hanno, 
king of Gaza, I captured. Tribute from Pharaoh, king of Egypt, Samsi, 
queen of Arabia, and Itamara, the Sabean, — gold, products of the moun- 
tains, horses, and camels, — I received." See Schrader, KA T, 396 f. ; KB, 
II. 54 f. f See Schrader, KA T, 277 f. ; KB, II. 36. 

\ There is a passage in one of Sargon's inscriptions (Schrader, KB, II. 
36 f.) in which he calls himself "the subduer of Ia-u-dti"; but, if the 
country in question is Judah, probably all that is meant is, that, about this 
time, Ahaz renewed the oath of allegiance which he had taken when he 
appealed to Tiglath-pileser. 



40 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



same; Judah also, and Edom, and Moab. The outcome 
was a total failure. Sargon easily took Ashdod, which 
he repeopled and transformed into an Assyrian prov- 
ince. Shabataka, the then king of Egypt, not only did 
not come to its relief, but surrendered Iamani, the fugi- 
tive leader of the rebellion, to the Assyrian conqueror.* 
Some of the allies of the Ashdodites were punished. 
The Jews do not appear to have suffered; at any rate, 
there is no record to that effect! Perhaps they re- 
pented in time to escape the fate of their neighbors. 

The failure of Hezekiah's first attempt to throw off 
the Assyrian yoke naturally prevented him from mak- 
ing another under similar circumstances ; but, when, in 
705, Sargon was succeeded by Sennacherib, the pros- 
pect of success in such an undertaking became brighter. 
In the first place, Judah had then regained much of 
the strength which it lost upon the death of Uzziah 
(2 Kgs. xviii. 7 a). On the other hand, Assyria was 
weakened by the internal disturbances that culminated 
in the assassination of Sargon ; and, when he was gone, 
it temporarily lost nearly all of its foreign possessions. 
Finally, in Egypt there had arisen a vigorous ruler, 
Tirhaka,i who was eager to extend his influence in 

* In the inscription in which Sargon recalls the result of this campaign 
(Schrader, KAT, 398 ff. ; KB, II. 64 ff.) the king who surrenders Iamani 
is called king of Milucha ; but Milucha, it is almost universally admitted, 
is only another name for Ethiopia, to which Egypt was at the time subject. 
See Schrader, KAT, 205; McCurdy, HPM, II. 245 f. ; Delitzsch, WP, 
56 f. ; Meyer, GA, I. 457 f. ; comp. Tiele, BAG, 269 ff. ; Winckler, A U, 
27. 

f The inscription in which Sargon claims to have subdued Judah, if 
Judah is meant, antedates this campaign. 

X Comp. Winckler, A U, 28 f., who claims that Tirhaka did not get pos- 
session of Egypt until 691 B.C. 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



41 



Syria. It is not surprising, in view of this state of 
things, that Hezekiah thought it safe, not only to en- 
tertain an embassy from Merodach-baladan, who had 
again seized the throne of Babylonia (2 Kgs. xx. 12 ff.),* 
but to imprison Padi, who had been driven from that of 
Ekron. At first it seemed as if he had really secured 
his independence ; but Sennacherib soon began to show 
that, with the sceptre, he had inherited the ability to 
wield it. In a year he had firmly established himself 
on the throne of his father. It took him only two more 
to unseat the Babylonian usurper, bring the peoples to 
the north and east, that had rovolted, into subjection, 
and push his conquests in the latter direction beyond 
those of his predecessors. Then, in 701, he turned his 
attention westward. He first invaded Phoenicia and 
reduced its cities, one after another, in rapid succession. 
Thereupon most of the kings of the neighboring nations 
returned to their allegiance ; among them Ammon, Moab, 
Edom, and Ashdod. Three, at least, failed to send tokens 
of submission, and Sennacherib proceeded to reconquer 
them. Zidka, a usurper, who seems to have been re- 
sponsible for the revolt of Ashkelon, was dethroned, and 
the crown restored to its rightful wearer. The Ekron- 
ites were next attacked. Their subjugation was delayed 
by the appearance of a large force of Egyptians, who 
had come to their support. The respite, however, 
was but a brief one. In the battle at Eltekeh, which 
followed, the Assyrians were victorious. Tirhaka re- 
treated, and Sennacherib, having captured Ekron, killed 

* The story of the embassy follows the account of Sennacherib's invasion, 
but the order of the events was the reverse. Comp. Ragozin, SA, 269 ff. ; 
Tiele, BA G, 289. 



42 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



or deported the better part of its inhabitants. Judah 
was now completely at the mercy of the invader, but 
Hezekiah made no sign of submission. Sennacherib, 
therefore, sent a part of his army to ravage Judah and 
threaten Jerusalem, while he, with the main body, pro- 
ceeded southward and invested Lakish. When Heze- 
kiah saw the Assyrians, laden with the spoil of his 
lesser cities, at the very gates of his capital, repenting 
the unwisdom of defying the great king, he made haste 
to release Padi, empty his treasury, strip the temple of its 
ornamentation, and even sacrifice some of his daughters, 
to appease the conqueror. The general in command of 
the Assyrians, who perhaps had neither troops enough 
nor the engines necessary for a successful siege, then 
retired and rejoined his master at Lakish. Not long 
afterward, as Sennacherib was moving on Egypt, his 
army was overtaken by an unknown disaster, in conse- 
quence of which he suddenly changed his plans and 
returned to Syria.* 

*The above sketch is condensed from the three sources of information 
on the subject. Sennacherib's own account of the campaign is preserved 
in the celebrated Taylor Cylinder (Schrader, KA T, 288 ff. ; KB, II. 90 ff.). 
It is so interesting and important that it must be given in full. It runs as 
follows : " In my third expedition I went to the land of Heth. Luli, king 
of Sidon, overpowered by fear of the splendor of my royalty, fled far into 
the midst of the sea; and I took his land. Sidon the great, Sidon the less, 
Beth-zitti, Sarepta, Maehallib, Usha, Akzib, Akko, — his strong towns, — 
the fortresses where there was water and pasture, and shelter for his troops, 
the might of the arms of Asshur, my lord, overwhelmed, and they pros- 
trated themselves at my feet. Tubalu on the royal throne over them I 
seated, and a payment of tribute to my royalty, yearly without ceasing, I 
laid upon him. Menahem of Samsimuruna, Tubalu of Sidon, Abdiliti of 
Arwad, Urumilki of Gebal, Mitinti of Ashdod, Buduilu of Beth-ammon, 
Kemosh-nadab of Moab, Malkiram of Edom, — all the kings of the West, 
— brought rich gifts, their costly present, with goods (?), to me, and 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



43 



One would naturally infer from 2 Kgs. xix. 35 ff., 
that Sennacherib's army was almost completely anni- 

kissed my feet. But Zidka, king of Ashkelon, who did not submit to my 
yoke, — the gods of his family, himself, his wife, his sons, his daughters, 
his brothers, the offspring of his family, I removed and deported to Assyria. 
Sharruludari, son of Rukibti, their former king, over the people of Ashke- 
lon I placed ; the giving of tribute of submission to my royalty I imposed 
upon him, and he rendered obedience. 

" In the progress of my expedition, Beth-dagon, Joppa, Bene-barak, 
Hazor, — cities of Zidka that had not at once prostrated themselves at 
my feet, — I besieged, captured, and plundered. The nobles and officers 
of Ekron, who had cast Padi, their king according to sworn agreement 
with Assyria, into iron fetters ; and hostilely delivered him to Hezekiah of 
Judah, who confined him in prison, — their hearts feared. The kings of 
Egypt summoned the archers and chariots and horses of the king of Ethi- 
opia, a numberless force, and came to their assistance. Before Eltekeh 
the army was arrayed against me ; they uplifted their weapons. Relying 
on Asshur, my lord, I fought with them and wrought their overthrow. The 
captain of the chariots, and the sons of a king of Egypt, with the captain 
of the chariots of the king of Ethiopia, alive in the midst of battle, my 
hand seized. Eltekeh and Timnath I besieged, captured, and plundered. 
Against Ekron I advanced. The nobles and officers who had caused re- 
volt I slew, and their corpses on stakes I hanged about the city. The 
people of the city who had done wrong and injury I reckoned as prisoners. 
To the rest, who had not wrought revolt or wickedness, who had not com- 
mitted their crime, I proclaimed amnesty. Padi, their former king, from 
Jerusalem I brought forth, set him upon the royal throne over them, and 
laid the tribute to my royalty upon him. 

" Hezekiah of Judah, also, who did not submit to my yoke, — forty-six 
of his strong cities, and the fortresses and small places in their vicinity 
without number, with trampling of a-ram-mi, attack of sn-pi-i, battle, zu- 
ttk of feet, pil-si nik-si u kal-ban-na-ti, I besieged and captured. Twenty 
thousand one hundred and fifty people, small and great, male and female, 
horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number, I brought 
forth and reckoned as booty. Him, like a bird in a cage, in Jerusalem, 
his royal city, I enclosed. Bulwarks against him I reared, and he who 
came forth from the gate of the city I turned back. The cities that I had 
plundered from his land I severed ; and I gave them to Mitinti, king of 
Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Silbil, king of Gaza ; and I diminished 



+4 



IX TR OD UCTOR Y S TUDIES. 



hilated by the angel of Jehovah, and that he himself 
escaped only to be assassinated by two of his sons soon 
after his return to Nineveh. This, however, was not 
the case. In the first place, although, as one can read 
between the lines of his own statements, he was obliged 
to abandon his plan for the conquest of Egypt, his 
expedition was so far successful that he retained his 
hold on the region actually overrun, and prevented 
Tirhaka from getting possession of it. Secondly, he 
lived after his return no fewer than twenty years, and 

his land. To the former tribute, their annual gift, a present of submission 
to my royalty I added, and I imposed it upon them. Hezekiah himself 
fear of the splendor of my royalty prostrated; the Urbi. also, and his 
brave troops, whom, to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city, he had 
brought in and granted wages (?). With thirty talents of gold and eight 
hundred talents of silver, I caused precious stones, sparkling gu-uh-li, 
great uknt, ivory couches, lofty thrones of ivory, elephant skins, ivory, 
usu wood, ukarinnu wood, every thing, — great treasure, — also his 
daughters, women of the palace, and male and female attendants, to be 
brought to Nineveh, my royal abode, after me. To pay tribute, also, and 
render submission, he sent his messenger." 

Lakish is not mentioned in this inscription, but there exists a picture 
from one of the halls of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh, in which he is 
represented as receiving the spoils of the captured city. See Ragozin, 
SA, 306. 

The biblical account of Sennacherib's invasion (xviii. 13-xix. 37) be- 
gins with a brief statement (xviii. 13-16) in perfect harmony, so far as 
it goes, with the Assyrian record. This, however, is followed by a de- 
tailed narrative to the effect that Sennacherib, as it would seem after 
having received the fine imposed, made two attempts to get possession of 
Jerusalem : first sending his lieutenant with a strong force from Lakish to 
overpower it (2 Kgs. xviii. 17); and afterward, on hearing that Tirhaka 
was advancing, despatching a letter warning Hezekiah that resistance 
would be useless (2 Kgs. xix. 9) : but that Jehoveh interposed and smote 
185,000 of the Assyrians, whereupon Sennacherib returned to his own 
country (2 Kgs. xix. 35 ff.). If Sennacherib, after making terms with 
Hezekiah, really made any further attempt, or attempts, to get possession 



THE TIMES OE ISAIAH. 



45 



conducted several successful campaigns, one of which 
was directed against Edom and the Arabs on its border.* 
Finally, in 68 1 B.C., he was succeeded by his son Esar- 
haddon ; but before that date (686) Hezekiah had been 
succeeded by Manasseh, and Isaiah, also, had probably 
finished his labors. 

The dates of the persons and events mentioned in the 
preceding discussion have been given, each in the proper 
connection, but they can be put into a form more con- 
venient for review or reference. The following table is 
intended to serve such purposes. 

of Jerusalem, the fact may be explained in one of two ways. It may be, 
as the Hebrew historian seems to have intended to make it appear, that, 
in so doing, he simply broke faith with his vassal. On the other hand, 
although the biblical narrative contains no hint that such was the case, 
it may be that Hezekiah, by continuing his intrigues with Tirhaka, gave 
the Assyrian king reason for insisting upon the surrender of the city. All 
this, on the supposition that any such attempt was made, which, however, 
is far from certain. The biblical narrative is probably a compilation 
from three different sources. In the first place, it is plain, that xviii. 14- 
16, which does not appear in Isa. xxxvi., is foreign to its present con- 
nection ; and secondly, when xviii. 1 7-xix. 8 and xix. 9-34 are compared, 
the remarkable similarity between them makes it equally clear that they 
are different versions of the same story. See Stade, GVI, I. 617 f. But, 
if these three passages are really parallel, and not continuous, the demand 
for the surrender of the city may be inserted before the payment, of the 
fine imposed, and the Hebrew thus brought into as nearly perfect harmony 
with the Assyrian record as could be expected. Of course Sennacherib 
would not report the disaster in which the Hebrews saw the hand of 
Jehovah. 

There is an Egyptian tradition with reference to this disaster, preserved 
by Herodotus (II. 141), to the effect that it occurred near Pelusium ; 
where an army of mice, by divine command, destroyed the weapons of the 
Assyrians and thus made them an easy prey to the Egyptians. See Mc- 
Curdy, HPAI, II. 298 f. 

* See Schrader, KB, II. 130 f.; Meyer, GA, I. 471; comp. McCurdy, 
HPM, II. 301. 



THE TIMES OF ISAIAH. 



47 




43 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



III. 

THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 

The book of Isaiah is so called, because, until the 
latter part of the eighteenth century, it was all but 
universally believed to be the work of the prophet 
whose name it bears. That opinion is now almost 
obsolete.* The last twenty-seven chapters of the book, 
which deal with the condition and expectations of the 
Jews in and after the Exile from the contemporary 
standpoint, and differ from the first part in style and 
doctrine, are generally regarded by scholars as the 
product of the period with which they have to do. 
They should therefore be treated as a separate book, 
requiring a special introduction. 

The book of Isaiah, then, includes at most only the 
first thirty-nine chapters of the present collection. In- 
deed, it is no longer possible to assert without contra- 
diction, that the whole of this is to be attributed to the 
prophet. There are various passages in it whose genu- 
ineness is questioned ; and some of them bear so evi- 
dent marks of other origin that few authorities continue 
to regard them as Isaianic. The most important of these 
acknowledged additions are xi. io-xii. 6, xiii. i-xiv. 23, 
xxi. 1-10, xxiv.-xxvii., xxxiv.-xxxv., and xxxvi.-xxxix. 
These passages are not all of the same period. Some 
of them reflect the events and conditions of the Exile. 
There is little doubt that xiii. i-xiv. 23 and xxi. 1-10, like 

* Koppe, in his translation of Lowth's Isaiah, 1779-81, was the first to 
break with tradition, doubting the genuineness of the fiftieth chapter. 



THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 



49 



xlvii., belong to this period. It is possible that xi. 10- 
xii. 1 6 is of the same age, but more probable, to judge 
from the tameness of its style and the inferiority of its 
contents, that it is to be classed with Ivi.-lxvi. among 
the products of a later period. To the same period 
belong xxiv.-xxvii. and xxxiv.-xxxv. (With xxxiv. com- 
pare lxiii. 1-6.) The former, however, is later than 
the latter ; in fact, its apocryphal tone, and the refer- 
ence to the West in xxiv. 14, indicate that it was w r ritten 
when the overthrow of the Persian empire was immi- 
nent. The date of xxxvi.-xxxix., in its original form, is 
that of the books of Kings, from which it was taken. 
In its present form it is considerably later ; for the 
psalm of Hezekiah is post-Exilic. The doubtful pas- 
sages are more numerous ; * but since, with the excep- 
tion of xv. i-xvi. 12 and xxi. 11-15, which are attributed 
to a predecessor of Isaiah, they are referred by those 
who question their genuineness to the same period as 
the recognized additions, it is not necessary to discuss 
them in the present connection. It is enough to have 
discovered that the first part of the so-called book of 
Isaiah contains extended passages not written by Isaiah, 
most of which are the products of a much later period. 

Having gotten an idea of the contents of the collec- 
tion in which the prophecies of Isaiah have been pre- 
served, the next step is to study its arrangement. The 
simplest and most natural order is that according to 
date ; and this appears to have been to some extent 
observed. The earliest prophecies, as a rule, come 

* The latest critics have added greatly to their number. Cheyne, in his 
Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, finds only about a third of the first 
thirty-nine chapters genuine. 



50 



IX TR OD UC TOR Y ST UDIES. 



among the first, and the latest among the last, in the 
collection ; but there are many puzzling exceptions. 
In the first place, the additions, which one would ex- 
pect to find grouped together at the end, are scattered 
through the collection ; with the exception of xxxvi.- 
xxxix., which is properly treated as an appendix. Nor 
do the genuine prophecies follow one another in chro- 
nological order. The least surprising exception is the 
first chapter ; since, although, as will hereafter be 
shown, it was probably written about 720 B.C., its com- 
prehensive character explains why it, rather than vi, 
should have been given the place of an introduction. 
The most striking instances of displacement among the 
earlier prophecies are ix. 7/8-x. 4 and x. 5-34. The 
former, though not all of a piece, is all older than any 
part of chapters vii. and viii., while parts of the latter 
are among the latest utterances of the prophet. In the 
last chapters there is only one example (xxviii. 1-4), 
and this may be a quotation, by Isaiah himself, of an 
earlier utterance. Among the oracles concerning the 
nations, on the other hand, the matter of dates seems to 
have been almost entirely disregarded. Thus, while xiv. 
24-27 evidently belongs to the year 701, the next sec- 
tion, which is wrongly dated in the year that Ahaz 
died, cannot be earlier than 705. There is a similar 
union of prophecies of different dates in chapter xvii. ; 
for, while vv. 1-11 antedate the overthrow of Damascus 
by Tiglath-pileser, vv. 12-14 must be referred to the 
date of Sennacherib's invasion. The next chapter is 
of the same date, but xx. records words uttered ten 
years earlier, when Sargon was subduing Ashdod. In 
xxii., however, the reader again finds himself in the 



THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 



51 



midst of the excitement of Sennacherib's famous 
campaign. 

The idea suggests itself that, perhaps, in this series 
of prophecies, the principle of arrangement is that 
according to subject or content; but this principle, 
also, although most of the prophecies deal with the 
fate of the nations surrounding Palestine, is repeatedly 
disregarded. Thus, e.g., the group contains extended 
passages that belong elsewhere. The " burden of 
Damascus," xvii. i-ii, is one of them, its real subject 
being Israel; and xx. is another. The former belongs 
among the first, the latter among the last, of the collec- 
tion. On the other hand, it does not contain all that 
belongs to it. Why should xiv. 24-27 and xvii. 12-14 
have been assigned to the places which they occupy, 
and x. 5-34, on the same subject, inserted where it now 
stands? Finally, prophecies on the same subject are, 
in the case of xiv. 24-27 and xvii. 12-14, separated from 
each other. 

It is now time to seek an explanation for the facts 
noted. The first question is whether the present arrange- 
ment of the collection is the original one. There are 
good reasons for believing that it is not. In the first 
place there is too much, or too little, regard paid to the 
simplest principles of arrangement to allow one to sup- 
pose that the original was the final order. Moreover, 
the title at the beginning of the second chapter seems 
to show that the present collection grew out of a smaller 
one. How ? This is the second question. By the grad- 
ual process of accidental accretion, or through the 
agency of another editor or editors ? If the former were 
the case, it would be impossible to discover any evidence 



52 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



of design in the seeming disorder. Such evidence, how- 
ever, exists. It is found in the distribution of the later 
additions to the Isaianic nucleus supposed, especially in 
the places assigned to xi. io-xii. 6, xxiv.-xxvii., and 
xxxiv.-xxxv. These three passages close the three books 
into which the collection is most naturally divided. The 
cases of xi. io-xii. 6. and xxxiv.-xxxv. are so clear that 
no one would think of objecting to this statement. The 
other passage has oftenest been connected with the 
chapters following ; but the analogy of the first and 
third divisions, the character of chapter xxiv., — it de- 
scribes a general judgment affecting all nations, — and 
the references there and elsewhere to a ruined city,* all 
unite to produce the impression that the whole passage, 
ending, like the other two, in a prediction of a return to 
Palestine, f was intended to furnish a fitting conclusion 
to the preceding series of prophecies concerning the 
nations, the last of which describes the overthrow of 
the capital of Phoenicia. 

The passages cited show that the prophecies of Isaiah 
owe their final setting to an editor as late as the latest 
of these additions. But this does not exhaust their 
significance. They betray the purpose that prompted 
the rearrangement and enlargement of the collection, 
and furnish an explanation of some of the (from another 
point of view) irregularities that have perplexed readers. 

The purpose of the editor is revealed in the similar 
words with which each of the books closes. Says xi. 

* xxiv. io, 12; xxv. 2; xxvi. 5; xxvii. 10. This point holds good what- 
ever the city referred to, since the references to it, as mere catchwords, 
would connect it with chapter xxiii. 

t xxvii. 13; comp. xi. 16 and xxxv. 10. 



THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 



S3 



1 6, which is the real conclusion of the first: " There 
shall be a highway, for the remnant of his people that 
remaineth, from Assyria, as there was for Israel in the 
day when they came up from the land of Egypt." The 
words of xxvii. 13 are: "It shall come to pass in that 
day, that a great trumpet shall be blown ; and they that 
are wandering in the land of Assyria, and they that are 
scattered in the land of Egypt, shall come and worship 
Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem." Finally, 
chapter xxxv. closes, v. 10, with the assurance: "The 
ransomed of Jehovah shall return and come to Zion 
with singing; and everlasting joy shall be on their 
heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy; and sor- 
row and sighing shall flee away." These words, chosen 
to be the last to engage the reader's thought, clearly 
mean, that he who put them where they stand did so 
for the purpose of giving to the collection a hopeful 
tone, and thus stimulating his compatriots to expect the 
promised restoration. This purpose, once discovered, 
explains the recurrence of comforting passages through- 
out the collection. The reader was to be constantly 
reminded that God could not forsake his people. It 
explains also the fact that the additions to the genuine 
prophecies are largely of this character. Even Isaiah 
had not dwelt on the glory and happiness of Israel's 
future as much as this later prophet would have had 
him. Finally, it explains the violence done to the orig- 
inal arrangement. Take the case of ix. 7/8-xi. 16. 
The two passages, ix. 1/2-6/7 and xi - l ~9 ar e of nearly 
the same date. They would therefore naturally have 
been placed, the one immediately after the other. They 
are separated, as has already been described, by two 



54 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



passages, one of which is somewhat earlier and the 
other considerably later. Notice, however, that, by the 
introduction of these two passages in their actual order, 
a new group, in which the main points of Isaiah's mes- 
sage appear in their logical relation, is produced, and 
the effectiveness of the promise enhanced. It is pos- 
sible that the order of the last two books was changed 
when the collection was remodelled. If so, this change 
is another manifestation of the dominance of the pur- 
pose in question.* 

The outcome of the preceding discussion of the con- 
tent and arrangement of chapters i.-xxxix. of the book of 
Isaiah, makes it possible to form a reasonably satis- 
factory theory with reference to the origin of the collec- 
tion. First, there must have been a collection consisting 
entirely, or almost entirely, of genuine prophecies. It 
was made, not by Isaiah, or one of his immediate dis- 
ciples, but by some one remote enough from him to be 
unable in some cases to perceive the circumstances 
under which the prophecies were uttered. He found 
them circulating singly or in small groups, and put them 
into a more intelligible and permanent form. He doubt- 
less intended to arrange them in chronological order, 
and did, as far as he could, so arrange those that related 
directly to his own people ; but, since those concerning 
the neighboring nations for various reasons could not be 
included in such a plan, he naturally placed them in a 
sort of appendix at the end of his book. How these 

* The position of ii. 2-4 at the beginning of a group of prophecies is 
anomalous. Lagarde (Semitica, I. 7) suggests that it was originally- 
attached to the first chapter. Perhaps it was inserted by another after 
the editor's work was done. 



THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 



55 



appended prophecies were arranged it seems impossible 
to discover ; probably not in the order in which they 
appear in the present collection. Finally, there arose 
one who felt himself authorized and commissioned to 
adapt Isaiah's utterances to the needs of his own gener- 
ation. To this end he rearranged them and introduced 
later prophecies, especially such as were inspired by 
faith in the restoration of his people to their country. 
The story of the great deliverance under Hezekiah was 
added ; and, to bring it into closer connection with the 
prophecies of Isaiah concerning it, those relating to the 
nations, with some additions, were placed in the middle 
of the collection, furnished with a conclusion, and thus 
made a distinct book.* There is reason for believing 
that, in this book, the places of some at least of the 
prophecies were determined by catchwords, f 

The bearing of the conclusions reached is obvious. 
If, even in chapters i.-xxxix., there are considerable 
portions that were not written by the prophet, and the 
portions that may safely be attributed to him have been 
edited by a later man of God, then the collection as a 
whole can no longer be regarded as correctly represent- 
ing him and his teaching. If one would know what he 

* Cornill (ZA W, 1884, 92 ff.) claims that the prophecies of the second 
book are a development of xi. II, where the nations among which the Jews 
had been scattered are enumerated; butDuhm and others hold that all the 
names there found, except Assyria and Egypt, have been interpolated. If 
they do not belong to the original text, it is probable that they were inserted 
for the purpose of establishing a connection which did not previously exist. 

f Cornill, in the article above quoted, undertakes to show that the 
arrangement of almost the entire collection was determined by catchwords; 
but it is a fair question whether some of his supposed catchwords are not 
accidental coincidences or the repetitions by which paragraphs are often 
connected in composition. 



56 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



really was and taught, one must separate what he said 
or wrote from its present connection and read it by itself 
in the light of the history of his time. In so doing, how- 
ever, one should not ignore, or reject as valueless, the 
remaining contents of the collection. They, too, are the 
product of inspiration, the utterances of men who knew 
God and loved their people so well that they could not 
believe that the glorious visions of their revered prede- 
cessor would not yet be fulfilled and Israel once more 
become a great nation. Nor should the insertion of 
these passages among the works of Isaiah be condemned 
or lamented. It was an act of faith, and not an attempt 
at deception ; and the result was a means of stimulus to 
faith for which men will never cease to be grateful. 

A more minute analysis of chapters i.-xii. will be made 
in the course of the comments to which the rest of this 
volume is to be devoted. For the present it will be 
sufficient to present in tabular form the result of that 
analysis. 

In the first table, these chapters, and provisionally the 
remaining twenty-seven of the first half of the book of 
Isaiah, are divided into their component parts and the 
date of each passage indicated. 

i. i, editorial; 2-31, c. 720. 

ii. 1, editorial; 2-4 post-Exilic; 5, editorial; 6-21, 735, except 20 

(editorial) ; 22, editorial. 

iii. 735; except 10 f., 18-23, and 240-26 (editorial). 

iv. 2-4,735; 5 f., editorial. 

v. 1-24, 735; except 15 f. (editorial); 25-29, 734; 30, editorial. 

vi. 730 ±. 

vii. 734; except 8 b (editorial) and i8f. (702). 

viii. 1-8,734; except 3 f. (733); 9*"-, 7 01 ; «~*5» 7345 16-22, 730±; 

23 (ix. 1), editorial. 



THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 



57 



ix. 


1/2-6/7, 730±; 7/8-20/21, 735 ; except 14/15 f. (editorial). 


X. 


1-4, 735; except 4b (editorial); 5-15, 701; except 10-12 




(editorial); 16-27, editorial; 28-32,711; 33 f., editorial. 


xi. 


1-9, 730±; 10-16, post-Exilic. 


xii. 


post-Exilic. 


xiii. 


Exilic. 


xiv. 


1-23, Exilic; 24-27, 701 ; 28-32, 705. 


XV. 


775±- 


xvi. 


1-12, 775±; 13U 7 11 - 


xvii. 


1-11, 735; 12-14, 7 OI « 


xviii. 


1-6, 701; 7, post- Exilic. 


xix. 


1— 15, 665 ± ; 16-25, post-Exilic. 


XX. 


711. 


xxi. 


1-10, Exilic; n-15, 775 ± ; 16 f., 711. 


xxii. 


I-14, 701; 15-23, 702; 24 f., editorial. 


xxiii. 


I-14, 702; 15-18, post-Exilic. 


xxiv. 


post-Exilic. 


XXV. 


post-Exilic. 


xxvi. 


post-Exilic. 


xxvii. 


post-Exilic. 


xxviii. 


1-4,734; 5 f., editorial; 7-29,704. 


xxix. 


1— 15, 702; except 5 and 8 (editorial); 16-24, post-Exilic. 


XXX. 


1-17, 702; 18-26, post-Exilic; 27-33, 701. 


xxxi. 


702; except 6f. (editorial). 


xxxii. 


1-8, Exilic; 9-14,702; 1 5-20, post-Exilic. 






xxxiv. 


post-Exilic. 


XXXV. 


post-Exilic. 


xxxvi. 


600. 


xxxvii. 


600. 


xxxviii. 


1-8, 600; 9-20, post-Exilic; 21 f., 600. 


xxxix. 


600. 


In 


the second table an attempt is made to show the 



connection of thought which the editor of the collection 
may be supposed to have seen between the prophecies 
and fragments of prophecies united in the first twelve 
chapters to be interpreted. It will also serve as an 
outline for the proposed comments. 



5S 



INTRODUCTORY STUDIES. 



A. An introductory summary, i. 2-31. 

1. The perversity of God's chosen, vv. 2-9. 

a. The baseness of it, vv. 2-4. 

b. The folly of it, vv. 5-9. 

2. The requirements of Jehovah, vv. 10-20. 

a. The forms of religion, vv. 10-15 a « 

b. The substance* of piety, vv. i5b-20. 

(1) The outward manifestation, vv. 15D-17. 

(2) The inward disposition, vv. 18-20. 

3. The faithful town, vv. 21-31. 

a. Its degeneracy, vv. 21-23. 

b. Its regeneration, vv. 24-31. 

B. The future of God's people, ii.-xii. 
1. The disloyal mass, ii. 2-vi. 13. 

a. The ideal and its realization, ii. 2-iv. 6. 

(1) A universal shrine, ii. 2-4. 

(2) A separation of the unworthy, ii. 5-iv. I. 
(a) A general visitation, ii. 5-21. 

a. The curse of prosperity, vv. 5-1 1. 
/3. A general overthrow, vv. 12-17. 
7. The useless idols, vv. 18-21. 
The portion of Judah, ii. 22-iv. 1. 
a. The pillars of society, ii. 22-iii. 7. 
|8. The defiant rebels, iii. 8-15. 
7. The wanton women, iii. 16-iv. I. 

(3) The rescued remnant, iv. 2-6. 

b. The unprofitable vineyard, v. 

(1) The parable, vv. 1-7. 

(2) The developmertt, vv. 8-30. 

(a) The sinners «after their kinds, vv. 8-24. 

a. The avaricious, vv. 8-IO. 

j8. The dissolute, vv. n-17. 

7. The presumptuous, vv. 18 f. 

d. The perverse, v. 20. 

e. The conceited, v. 21. 

f. The corrupt, vv. 22-24. 

(£) The avenger of Jehovah, vv. 25-30. 

c. The vision of Isaiah) vi. 

(1) The Holy One of Israel, vv. 1-7. 

(2) The prophet's commission, vv. 8-13. 



THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 



59 



2. The loyal remnant, vii-xii. 

a. Faith and its rewards, vii. 1-ix. 6/7. 

(1) Faith in man, vii. 1-viii. 8. 
(a) The child Immanu-el, vii. 

a. Ahaz' dilemma, vv. 1-9. 
/3. A sign and its import, vv. IO-17. 
7. The devastation of Judah, vv. 18-25. 
(Jf) The boy Maher-shalal-hash-baz, viii. 1-8. 
a. The overthrow of the allies, vv. 1-4. 
/3. The inundation of Judah, vv. 5-8. 

(2) Faith in God, viii. 9-ix. 6/7. 
(a) The only danger, viii. 9-15. 

(3) The coming darkness, viii. 16-23 (ix. i). 
(V) A great light, ix. 1 / 2-6 / 7. 

b. The work of Jehovah, ix. 7/8-xii. 6. 

(1) A succession of chastisements, ix. 7/8-x. 4. 
(a) Foreign foes, ix. 7/8-11/ 12. 

(F) Merciless pestilence, ix. 12/ 13- 16/ 17. 
(<r) Internal strife, ix. 17/18-20/21. 
(</) Death or captivity, x. 1-4. 

(2) The rod of God's anger, x. 5-34. 

(a) The boast of the Assyrian, vv. 5— II. 

(b) The overthrow of the boaster, vv. 12-19. 

(c) The liberation of the remnant, vv. 20-27. 
(V) The deoisive hour, vv. 28-34. 

(3) A new order, xi-xii. 

(a) An ideal kingdom, xi. 1-10. 

a. The inspired king, vv. 1-5. 

/3. The reign of peace, vv. 6-10. 
(3) The restoration of the outcast, xi. II-16. 
(<:) Songs of Salvation, xii. 

a. A song of faith, vv. 1-3. 

/3. A song "of praise, vv. 4-6.* 



* Comp. Kellner (PI), whose outline of the collection is based upon 
an arrangement of the genuine prophecies in chronological order. 



TRANSLATION AND COMMENTS. 



L 

REVELATIONS TO ISAIAH * 

son of Amos, which he beheld concerning Jzidah and 
Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jot ham t Ahaz, a7id 
Hezekiah, kings of Jndah. 

A. 

l. a. 2 Hear, O heaven ! and give ear, O earth ! for 
Jehovah hath spoken : Children have I reared, brought f 
up ; and they — have revolted from me. 3 An ox know- 
eth its owner, and an ass its master's crib : Israel have 
not understood, my people have not considered. 4 Ah, 
erring nation ! people laden with iniquity ! seed of evil- 
doers ! wayward children ! They have forsaken Jeho- 
vah, they have rejected the Holy One of Israel, — 
become apostate. 

b. 5 Why should ye increase your stripes by continued 
apostasy ? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart 

* In this translation, the parts believed to be genuine are printed in 
common type; the rest in Italics. Words or clauses restored are indicated 
by brackets, while glosses upon non-Isaianic passages are enclosed between 
marks of parenthesis. t Text : and brought. 

60 



1. 5-17] 



TRANS LA TION. 



61 



diseased. 6 From the sole of the foot to the very head 
there is no soundness ; but wounds, and wales, and fresh 
sores ; which have neither been purged, nor bound up, 
nor mollified with oil. 7 Your land is a desert ; your 
cities are burned with fire ; as for your soil, strangers 
devour it before your eyes ; and it is a desert as when 
Sodom * was * overthrown. 8 Yea, Zion the fair is left 
like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a field of 
cucumbers, like a city besieged. 9 Had not Jehovah of 
Hosts left us a remnant, we should soon have been as 
Sodom, we should have become like Gomorrah. 

2. a. 10 Hear the message of Jehovah, O rulers of 
Sodom ! Give ear to the teaching of our God, O people 
of Gomorrah ! 11 What profit have I in the multitude of 
your sacrifices ? saith Jehovah : I am sated with offer- 
ings of rams and the fat of fatlings ; and in the blood 
of bulls, and lambs, and he-goats I take no delight. 
12 When ye come to see f my face, who hath required of 
you this — trampling of my courts ? 13 Bring no more a 
worthless vegetable offering ; its fume is detestable unto 
me. New-moon and sabbath, proclamation of holiday, 
— I cannot away with falsehood and — festivity. 14 Your 
new-moons and your feasts my soul hateth : they are a 
burden to me, that I am weary of bearing. 15 Yea, when 
ye spread forth your palms, I hide my eyes from you ; 
and although ye multiply prayers, I do not listen. 

b. (1) Your hands are full of blood ; 16 wash, cleanse, 
yourselves. Away with your evil deeds from before my 
eyes. Cease to do evil; 17 learn to do well. Seek jus- 
tice; correct the oppressor ; judge the orphan; defend 
the w T idow. 

* Text : strangers are. f Text : appear. 



62 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 18-29 



(2) 18 Come now, let us come to an understanding, 
saith Jehovah : though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall become white as snow ; though they be red as 
vermilion, they shall become like wool. 19 If ye be 
willing and obedient, ye shall eat the best of the 
land ; 20 but if ye be wilful and rebellious, ye shall 
taste* — the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath 
spoken. 

3. a. 21 How hath the faithful town become a harlot ! 
the once full of justice, where righteousness dwelt, but 
now — murderers ! 22 Thy silver hath become dross ; thy 
drink is diluted with water. 23 Thy princes are unprin- 
cipled, partners of thieves. They all love a bribe, and 
chase after fees. The orphan they judge not ; and as 
for the cause of the widow, it doth not reach them. 

b. 24 Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, the 
Champion of Israel: Ha! I will have satisfaction of my 
adversaries ; and I will take vengeance upon my ene- 
mies. 25 Yea, I will turn my hand against thee, smelt- 
ing out in the furnace f thy dross, and removing all thy 
lead. 26 Then will I restore thee judges as at first, and 
counsellors as in the beginning. Thereafter shalt thou 
be called the righteous city, a faithful town. 27 Zion shall 
be redeemed by justice, and they that dwell % therein 
through righteousness ; 28 but a common destruction 
shall overtake revolters and sinners ; yea, they that for- 
sake Jehovah shall perish. 29 For ye § shall be ashamed 
of the oaks in which ye have delighted, and confounded 
by the gardens in which ye have found pleasure; 30 for 
ye shall be like a terebinth with withered foliage, or a 

* Text : be devoured by. f Text : thoroughly, or as with a flux. 
\ Text : return. § Text : they. 



I. 29-II. 8] 



TRANS LA TION. 



63 



garden that hath no water. 31 Yea, the strong shall be 
tow, and his work a spark ; and they shall both burn 
together, with none to quench them. 

B. 

UA The things that Isaiah, son of Amos, beheld concern- 
ing Judah and Jerusalem. 

1. a. (1) 2 And it shall come to pass finally, that the 
mountain * of Jehovah shall be established at the head of 
the mountains, and the * house* [of our God~\ shall uplift 
itself above the hills. Then shall all the nations stream 
to it ; ^yea, many peoples shall go and say : Come and let 
us go up to the mountain of Jehovah ; to the house of the 
God of Jacob ; that he may teach us of his ways, and that 
we may walk in his paths : for from Zion goeth forth 
instruction,, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 
4 Then shall he judge between the nations, and decide for 
many peoples ; and they shall beat their swords into mat- 
tocks, and their spears into pruning-knives : one nation 
shall not take the sword against another, nor shall they 
learn war any more. 

(2) (a) a. 5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walk 
in the light of Jehovah ! 6 But thou hast cast off thy 
people, the house of Jacob ; because they w r ere full of 
diviners | and augurers like the Philistines ; and with 
children of strangers they abounded. 7 Their land, also, 
is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their 
treasures ; their land is full of horses, also, and there is 
no end to their chariots ; 8 nay, their land is full of idols ; 
the work of their hands, that which their own fingers 

* Text : mountain of the house. f Text : the 'East. 



64 



ISAIAH. 



[II. 8-III. 2 



have made, they worship. 9 Therefore shall man be 
humbled, and mankind abased ; nor show them favor ! 
10 Go into the rock, and hide thyself in the ground, from 
the dreadful presence of Jehovah, and from the splendor 
of his majesty. 11 The lofty eyes of man shall be abased, 
and the haughtiness of men humbled ; and Jehovah 
alone shall be exalted in that day. 

(3. 12 For Jehovah of Hosts hath a day for every 
thing that is high and lofty, and every thing that tow- 
ers ; when it shall be abased : 13 even for all the cedars 
of Lebanon, lofty and towering, and all the oaks of 
Bashan; 14 and for all the lofty mountains, and all the 
towering hills ; 15 and for every high tower, and every 
strong wall ; 16 and for all the ships of Tarshish, and all 
the delightful figures. 17 Yea, the loftiness of man shall 
be humbled, and the haughtiness of men abased ; and 
Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. 

7. 18 The idols, also, shall all fail ; 19 and men shall go 
into caves in the rocks, and into holes in the ground, 
from the dreadful presence of Jehovah, and from the 
splendor of his majesty, when he ariseth to terrify the 
earth ; 20 in that day shall a man cast his idols of silver 
and his idols of gold, which he hath made for himself to 
worships to the moles and the bats ; 21 to go into the rents 
of the rocks, and into the clefts of the cliffs, from the 
dreadful presence of Jehovah, and from the splendor of 
his majesty, when he ariseth to terrify the earth. 

(b) a. 22 Trust no longer in man that breatheth, for 
what is he to be accounted? m - 1 For lo, the Lord, 
Jehovah of Hosts, will remove from Jerusalem, and from 
Judah, every staff : the whole staff 'of bread, and the whole 
staff of water; 2 hero and soldier; judge, and prophet, 



III. 2-15] 



TRANSLA TION. 



65 



and diviner, and elder ; 3 captain, and favorite, and coun- 
sellor, and magician, and conjurer. 4 And I will give 
them boys for princes, and they shall be the sport of 
their rulers. 5 And the people shall be harassed, one by 
another, yea, each by his neighbor : they shall assail, 
the boy the elder, and the base the honorable. 6 When 
one layeth hold of another, in the house of his father, 
[saying] : Thou hast a mantle ; be a ruler for us ! and 
let this ruin be under thy control ! 7 in that day shall he 
cry, saying: I will not be a surgeon; for in my house is 
neither bread nor mantle. Ye shall not make me a 
ruler of the people. 

/3. 8 For Jerusalem shall totter, and Judah fall ; be- 
cause with their tongues and their deeds they are against 
Jehovah, rebelling to his glorious face. 9 The look on 
their faces testifieth against them ; and their sin, like 
the Sodomites, they publish, they hide it not. Alas 
for themselves ! for they shall do themselves injury. 
™ Blessed* is the righteous ! for it shall be well with him ; 
for tJie fruit of 'his deeds shall lie eat. 11 Woe to the god- 
less ! it shall be ill with him : for what his hands have 
wrought shall be repaid him. 12 As for my people, their 
masters are children ; yea, women rule over them. O 
my people ! your leaders are seducers, and the way in 
which ye should walk they efface. 13 Jehovah is arisen 
to defend, and standeth to avenge, his f people, f 14 Je- 
hovah will enter into a contest with the elders of his 
people and their princes : And ye have cropped the 
vineyard; the spoil of the afflicted is in your houses. 
lo Wherefore crush ye my people, and bruise the faces 
of the afflicted ? saith the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts. 

* Text : Say. f Text : peoples. 



66 



ISAIAH. 



[III. 16-IV. 5 



7. 16 And Jehovah said: Because the daughters of 
Zion are haughty, and go with stretched necks and blink- 
ing eyes, go trippingly and jingle with their feet : 17 there- 
fore will the Lord bring baldness upon the crowns of the 
daughters of Zion ; yea, Jehovah will lay their temples 
bare. 18 In that day will the Lord remove the beautiful 
anklets, and sunlets, and moonlets ; 19 ear-drops ; and brace- 
lets, and veils ; 20 head-dresses, and step-chains, and sashes, 
and smelling-bottles, and amulets ; ^finger-rings and nose- 
rings ; ^gala-robes, and stoles, and shawls, and purses ; 
23 mirrors, and shirts, and turbans, and mantles. 24 And it 
shall come to pass, that instead of perfume there shall 
be putridity ; and instead of a girdle, a rope ; and instead 
of hair-work, baldness ; and instead of a mantle, a strip 
of hair-cloth ; a brand in the place of beauty. 25 Thy men 
shall fall by the szvord; even thy mighty in war. 26 And 
her doors shall sigh and mourn ; yea, she shall sit on the 
ground despoiled. iv - 1 And seven women shall lay hold 
of one man in that day, saying : We will eat our own 
bread, and wear our own raiment ; only let us be called 
by thy name ! take away our reproach ! 

(3) 2 In that day shall the growth of Jehovah be 
goodly and famous, and the fruit of the land glorious 
and beautiful, to the survivors in Israel. 3 For it shall 
come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, even he that is 
spared in Jerusalem, shall be called holy : every one 
that is enrolled to live in Jerusalem; 4 when Jehovah 
hath cleansed away the filth of Zion * the * fair,* and 
purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, with a 
blast of judgment, even a blast of destruction. 5 Then 
will Jehovah create over the whole site of Mount Zion, 
* Text : the daughters of Zion. 



IV. 5-V. 10] 



TRANSLA TION. 



67 



and over her festivals, a cloud of smoke by day, and the 
glow of flaming fire by night ; yea, over the whole shall 
there be a glorious canopy 6 and pavilion, a shelter {by 
day) from the heat, and a refuge and covert from the 
storm and the rain. 

b. ( i ) v - 1 Let me sing of my friend, — a song of my 
friend concerning his vineyard. A vineyard had my 
friend on a fertile hill. 2 This he digged and cleared of 
stones ; then he planted it with choice vines, and built 
a tower in the midst of it ; a wine-press, also, he hewed 
out therein. Then he expected it to yield grapes ; but 
it yielded wild ones. 3 Now, therefore, O dwellers in 
Jerusalem, and men of Judah ! judge, I pray you, be- 
tween me and my vineyard. 4 What was there yet to 
be done to my vineyard that I did not therein ? Why, 
then, when I expected it to yield grapes, did it yield 
wild ones ? 5 But now let me tell you what I shall do 
to my vineyard : take away its hedge, that it may be 
cropped ; tear down its wall, that it may be trampled. 

6 Yea, I will put an end to it : it shall neither be pruned 
nor tilled ; but thorns and briers shall grow therein ; I 
will also charge the clouds that they rain not upon it. 

7 But the vineyard of Jehovah of Hosts is the house of 
Israel, and the men of Judah his delightful plantation ; 
and when he expected redress, lo — distress ! and when 
restraint, lo — complaint! 

(2) (a) a. 8 Woe to you that join house to house, and 
add field to field, until there is no more room, and ye 
are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land ! 9 In 
my ears [hath] Jehovah of Hosts [revealed himself], 
saying : Surely many houses shall be empty, great ones 
and goodly without a tenant. 10 For ten yokes of vine- 



68 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 10-23 



yard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed pro- 
duce but an ephah. 

ft. 11 Woe to them that rise early in the morning, to 
pursue — drink ; and tarry in the evening until wine in- 
flame them : 12 that have the lute, and the psaltery, and 
the tabret, and the flute, with wine, in their feasts ; but 
regard not the work of Jehovah, nor perceive what his 
hands are doing. 13 Therefore shall my people go into 
captivity unawares : yea, their rich shall be pinched 
with hunger, even their wealthy parched * with * thirst. 
14 Therefore shall Sheol distend her maw, and open her 
mouth without limit ; and down shall go the showy and 
wealthy and noisy revellers among them. 15 Then shall 
man be humbled, and mankind abased ; yea, the eyes of 
the haughty shall be abased ; 16 but Jehovah of Hosts 
shall be exalted in justice, and the holy God sanctified by 
righteousness. 17 Then shall lambs graze as in their past- 
ure, and on deserted lands shall \ fatlings,f lambs, \ feed. 

7. 18 Woe to them that drag guilt [upon them] with 
cords of folly, and punishment as with a cart-rope ! 
19 who say : Let come quickly, speedily, what he would 
do, that we may see it ; and let what the Holy One pur- 
poseth draw nigh and happen, that we may know it ! 

8. 20 Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil ! 
- — that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ! 
that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! 

e. 21 Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, and 
in their own sight prudent ! 

f. 22 Woe to them that are heroes — in drinking wine, 
and men of prowess — in mixing drink ! 23 that acquit 
the guilty for a bribe, while the innocent they rob of his 

* Text : men of. f Text : of failings shall sojourners. 



V. 23-VI. 3] 



TRANSLA TION. 



69 



innocence! 24 Therefore as the fire's tongue lappeth 
stubble, and hay sinketh in the flame, so shall their root 
become rotten, and their blossom rise like dust : because 
they have rejected the teaching of Jehovah, and despised 
the word of the Holy One of Israel. 

(b) 25 Therefore was the anger of Jehovah kindled 
against his people, and his hand outstretched against 
them ; and he smote them, that the mountains trembled, 
and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the 
streets. For all this his anger turned not, but his hand 
was outstretched still. 26 But he will hoist a signal to 
a * nation * from afar, and shrill to one from the end of 
the earth ; and lo, they come quickly, swiftly ! 27 there 
is none that f ainteth or f alleth among them ; they neither 
slumber nor sleep ; the girdles of their loins are not 
loosed, nor are the strings of their shoes broken ; 28 their 
arrows are sharpened, and all their bows bent ; the hoofs 
of their horses are counted as flint, and their wheels 
as the whirlwind ; 29 they have a roar like the lion's, 
they roar like young lions ; and when they growl and 
lay hold of prey, they carry it off, and there is none 
to deliver. 30 And they shall growl over it in that day 
like the roaring of the sea ; and, if one look toward 
the land there shall be darkness {of distress), yea, the 
light shall be obscured by its clouds. 

c. (i) vi l Inthe year that King Uzziah died I saw 
the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted, while 
his train filled the temple. 2 Seraphs hovered about 
him, each with six wings : with two he covered his face, 
with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 
3 And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is 

* Text : the nations. 



70 



ISAIAH. 



[VI. 3-VII. i 



Jehovah of Hosts ! the whole earth is full of his glory ! 
4 Then the foundations of the threshold quaked at the 
sound, as each cried, while the house was filled with 
smoke. 5 And I said, Woe is me ! for I am undone ; 
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among 
a people of unclean lips ; yet my eyes have seen the 
King, Jehovah of Hosts. 6 But there flew to me one of 
the seraphs, bearing a live coal, that he had taken with 
the tongs off the altar ; 7 and he touched my mouth and 
said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; so shall thy guilt 
depart and thy punishment be cancelled. 

(2) 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 
Whom shall I send ? and who will go for us ? and I 
said, Here am I ; send me. 9 Then said he : Go, and 
say to this people, Hear on, but do not understand ; and 
see on, but do not perceive. 10 Make the hearts of this 
people gross, and their ears dull, and seal their eyes ; 
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 
and their hearts understand, and they be healed again. 
11 But I said, How long, O Lord ? and he said, Until 
the cities, ruined, are without inhabitant, and the houses 
without a man, and the soil is left* a desert. 12 Yea, 
Jehovah will remove man far away, and great shall be 
the desertion in the midst of the land. 13 And if there 
be in it yet a tithe, it also, in its turn, shall be consumed ; 
like the terebinth and the oak, of which, when they are 
felled, there is a stump. A holy seed is its stump. 

2. a. (1) (a) a. vii l And it came to pass, in the 
days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of 
Judah, that Resin, king of Syria, and Pekah, son of 
Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war — 

* Text : wasted. 



VII. i-i5] 



TRANSLA TION. 



71 



but did not prevail in their attack — against it. 2 And 
it was told the house of David, saying, Syria hath set- 
tled upon Ephraim ; and their hearts, and the hearts of 
their people, quaked, as the trees of the wood shake in 
the wind. 3 Then said Jehovah to Isaiah, Go forth to 
meet Ahaz, thou and Shear-yashub, thy son, at the end 
of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, in the path to the 
Fuller's Field ; 4 and say to him, Take heed to be calm ; 
fear not, neither let thy heart be timid, on account of 
these two smoking stumps of firebrands, — at the glow- 
ing anger of Resin and Syria, and of the son of Rema- 
liah. 5 Because Syria hath planned evil against thee, 
Ephraim [also], and the son of Remaliah, saying, 6 Let 
us go up against Judah, and terrify it, and overpower it, 
and enthrone as king in its midst the son of Tabeel ; 
7 thus saith the Lord, Jehovah : It shall not take place nor 
come to pass ; 8 for the head of Syria is Damascus, and 
the head of Damascus, Resin ; and within sixty and five 
years shattered Ephraim shall cease to be a people ; 9 and 
the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Sa- 
maria, the son of Remaliah. If ye do not confide, 
verily, ye shall not abide. 

/3. 10 Then spake Jehovah further unto Ahaz, saying, 
11 Ask thee a sign from Jehovah, thy God; going deep 
as Sheol, or into the heights above. 12 But Ahaz said: 
I will not ask one ; nor will I prove Jehovah. 13 Then 
said he, Hear, O house of David ! Is it too little for 
you to weary men, that ye must also weary my God ? 
14 Therefore will the Lord himself give you a sign : Lo, 
the young woman that shall conceive, and bear a son, 
and call his name Immanu-el, — 15 curds and honey shall 
he eat when he hath learned to reject the bad and 



72 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 15-VIII. 2 



prefer the good ; 16 for, before the lad hath learned to 
reject the bad and prefer the good, the soil whose two 
kings thou dreadest shall be forsaken ; 17 [but] Jehovah 
will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon 
thy father's house, days such as have not come since 
Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria. 

7. 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jeho- 
vah will shrill to the fly that is at the end of the rivers 
of Egypt, and the bee that is in the land of Assyria ; 
19 and they shall come and settle, all of them, in the 
yawning water-courses, and in the clefts of the cliffs, 
and in all the thorn-trees, and in all the pastures. 20 In 
that day will the Lord shave, with the razor hired be- 
yond the River, with the king of Assyria, the hair from 
both head and trunk; yea, even the beard shall it re- 
move. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that, if 
a man keep a heifer and two sheep, 22 from the abun- 
dance of the milk produced he shall eat curds ; for 
curds and honey shall every one eat that is left in the 
land. 23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that 
every place, where there are a thousand vines worth a 
thousand pieces of silver, shall be left to thorns and 
briers. 24 With the bow and arrows shall one go thither; 
for the whole land shall become thorns and briers : 25 all 
the hills, also, that are digged with the mattock, whither 
the fear of thorns and briers cometh not ; and they shall 
be a range for oxen, and a place for sheep to trample. 

(b) a. ^"^Then said Jehovah to me, Take thee a 
large tablet, and write thereon in plain script, To Swift 
booty, speedy prey; 2 and summon* me trusty witnesses, 
— Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, son of Jeberekiah. 

* Text : / will summon. 



VIII. 3-i5] 



TRANSLA TION. 



73 



3 And I drew near to the prophetess, and she conceived 
and bore a son. And Jehovah said to me, Call his 
name Maher-shalal-hash-baz ; * 4 for, before the lad hath 
learned to cry, Father, and Mother, the wealth of Da- 
mascus and the booty of Samaria shall be borne off 
before the king of Assyria. 

/S. 5 Then spake Jehovah to me further, saying, 6 Be- 
cause this people despise the water of Shilloah, that 
floweth softly, and despair on account of Resin and 
the son of Remaliah ; 7 therefore, lo, the Lord will 
bring up against them the water of the River, mighty 
and abundant, the king of Assyria, and all his glory ; 
and it shall wholly outgrow its channels, and overflow 
all its banks; 8 it shall also invade Judah, flood and 
overwhelm it, until it reacheth to the neck; yea, the 
stretch of its flanks shall fill the breadth of thy land, 
O Immanu-el ! 

(2) (a) 9 Attend,f O peoples! but to be confounded; 
and give ear, O all the ends of the earth ! Gird your- 
selves, but to be confounded! gird yourselves, but to be 
confounded ! 10 Plan a scheme, that it may be shattered ! 
speak a thing, that it may not take place ! for God is 
with us. 11 For thus spake Jehovah to me with mighty 
power, to warn me not to go in the way of this people, 
saying, 12 Say ye not, A plot ! whenever this people say, 
A plot ! and fear not what they fear, neither be terrified. 
13 Of % Jehovah of Hosts shall ye beware ; % and he shall 
be the object of your fear and your terror; 14 but he 
shall be a sanctuary, and a stone to trip on, and a rock 
to stumble over, for both houses of Israel ; a snare and 
a springe for the dweller in Jerusalem : 15 so that many 

* Swift-booty-speedy-prey. f Text : Rage. % Text : sanctify. 



74 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 15-IX. 3 



shall thereby stumble; yea, they shall fall and be broken, 
and be snared and taken. 

(V) 16 1 will roll up the testimony, seal the teaching, 
among my disciples ; 17 and I will wait for Jehovah, who 
hideth his face from the house of Jacob ; yea, I will look 
for him. 18 Lo, I and the children that Jehovah hath 
given me are signs and tokens in Israel from Jehovah 
of Hosts, who dwelleth in Mount Zion. 19 When, there- 
fore, they say to you, Inquire of the necromancers and 
the soothsayers, that chirp and mutter : should not a 
people inquire of their God ? for the living [should one 
inquire] of the dead ? 20 To the teaching and the testi- 
mony ! surely they tell of the like of this state, to which 
there is no dawn. 21 And they shall pass through it 
downcast and hungry ; and it shall come to pass, that 
when they are hungry, they shall become enraged and 
curse their king and their God ; and whether they turn 
upward 22 or look earthward, lo, trouble and darkness, 
the darkness of oppression, * 23 yea, a gloom without | 
brightness, f For is not the land darkened that is op- 
pressed ' f The first time he dealt gently in the land of 
Zebalon and the land of Naphtali ; but the last, he dealt 
severely in the region of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, the 
District of the nations. 

(e) ix - 1 The people that walk in darkness shall see a 
great light; on them that dwell in a gloomy land a 
brightness shall burst. 2 Thou wilt cause { abundant | 
exultation; $ thou wilt create exceeding joy: men shall 
rejoice before thee as they rejoice in harvest, as they 
exult when they divide booty. 3 For the yoke that 

* ix. 1 in the English version. f Text : dispersed. 

% Text : make great the nation ; to it. 



IX. 3-i5] 



TRANS LA TION. 



75 



burdeneth them, and the staff on their shoulders, the 
rod of their taskmaster, thou wilt break, as in the day 
of Midian. 4 Yea, every boot tramping noisily, and the 
cloak dragged in blood, shall be burned, be fuel for the 
fire. 5 For a child shall be born to us, a son shall be 
given to us ; and the sovereignty shall be on his 
shoulder ; and they shall call his name Wondrous-coun- 
sellor, Mighty-lord, Booty-taker, Prince-of-peace ; 6 for 
the enlargement of the sovereignty and for endless 
peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, 
establishing and strengthening it by justice and righteous- 
ness henceforth forever. The jealousy of Jehovah of 
Hosts will perform this. 

b. (i) (a) 7 A decree sendeth the Lord among Jacob, 
and it shall fall among Israel ; 8 and the people, all of 
them, shall take knowledge, Ephraim and the dweller 
in Samaria ; [who spake] in pride and arrogance, saying, 

9 Bricks are fallen, but we will rebuild with hewn stone ; 
sycamores are hewn in pieces, but we will replace them 
with cedars. 10 Therefore Jehovah upheld their* adver- 
saries * against them, and their enemies he aroused ; 
11 Syria from the east, and the Philistines from the west; 
and they devoured Israel with open mouth. For all 
this his anger turned not, but his hand was outstretched 
still. 

(b) 12 Yet the people returned not to him that smote 
them, and Jehovah of Hosts they sought not; 13 and 
Jehovah cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-tip and 
rush, in a day. 14 The elder and the favorite are the 
head, a7td the prophet that teacheth falsehood is the tail. 

10 The guides, also, of this people became seducers, and 

* Text : the adversaries of Resin. 



76 



ISAIAH. 



[IX. 15-X. 6 



their followers were destroyed. 16 Therefore the Lord 
spared not their youths, neither had he pity on their 
orphans and widows ; for they were all faithless and 
wicked, and every mouth spake folly. For all this his 
anger turned not, but his hand was outstretched still. 

(c) 17 For godlessness burned like a fire, devouring 
thorns and briers, and kindling the thickets of the for- 
est ; so that they went up in a column of smoke. 18 In 
the fury of Jehovah of Hosts the land was consumed, 
and the people became, as it were, fuel for the fire. No 
one spared his brother ; 19 and they cut to the right and 
remained hungry, and ate to the left without being sat- 
isfied ; they ate, every one the flesh of his fellow : * 
20 Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh ; to- 
gether they were against Judah. For all this his 
anger turned not, but his hand was outstretched still. 

(d) x - 1 Woe to them that record iniquitous decrees, 
and the writers that engross trouble ; 2 turning the lowly 
from judgment, and robbing the afflicted among my 
people of justice; so that widows are their prey, and 
orphans their plunder! 3 What, then, will ye do against 
the day of retribution, and of destruction that cometh 
from afar ? To whom will ye flee for help ? and where 
will ye bestow yourselves ? 4 Whoso sinketh not under 
prisoners shall fall beneath the slain. For all this his 
anger turned not, but his hand was outstretched still. 

(2) (a) 5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, and a 
staff in the j day f of f my vengeance. 6 Against a faith- 
less nation I sent him, and against the people of my 
fury I commissioned him ; to take booty, and to get 
plunder, and to trample them like the mire of the streets. 

* Text : arm. f Text : their hand. 



X. 7-i7] 



TRANS LA TION. 



77 



7 But he himself was not so minded, nor did his heart so 
purpose ; nay, rather, it was in his heart to destroy, and 
to cut off nations not a few. 8 For he said, Are not my 
princes all kings? 9 Is not Kalno as Karkemish? is not 
Hamath as Arpad ? and is not Samaria as Damascus ? 
10 As my hands have seized these kingdoms, which had 
statues above those of Jerusalem and Samaria, — 11 as I 
Jiave done to Samaria and its idols, shall I not do to Jeru- 
salem and its images ? 

(b) 12 But it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall 
have finished his whole work in Mount Zion and in 
Jerusalem, that he * will punish the vaunt of the arro- 
gance of the king of Assyria, and the display of his 
haughtiness; 12, because he hath said,^N\ti\ the strength 
of my own hand have I wrought, and in my own wisdom, 
for I am prudent; and I have removed the boundaries of 
the peoples, and their treasures I have plundered. I 
also have brought down [to the earth cities and] de- 
stroyed f their f inhabitants f ; 14 yea, my hand hath 
reached, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples ; and as 
one gathereth deserted eggs, have I gathered the whole 
earth ; nor was there one that fluttered a wing, or 
opened his mouth and peeped. 15 Doth the axe vaunt 
itself over him that heweth therewith ? or the saw mag- 
nify itself above him that wieldeth it ? — a rod, as it 
were, brandishing him that uplif teth it ! or a staff up- 
lifting that which is not wood ! 16 Therefore will the 
Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, send into his fat a consump- 
tion; also under his glory shall be kindled a burning like 
the burning of fire : 17 yea, the LigJit of Israel zvill be a 
fire, and their Holy One a flame ; and it shall burn and 

* Text : /. f Text : as a bull the enthroned. 



78 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 17-30 



devour his thorns and his briers in a day ; 18 also the 
glory of his forest and orchard. Soul and body shall it 
destroy, a7id it shall be as when a sick man wasteth. 
19 And the remaining trees of his forest shall be so few 
that a boy can write them. 

(c) 20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
remnant of Israel, and they that escape of the house of 
Jacob, shall no longer lean upon their smiter, but shall 
lean upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, faithfully. 
21 A remnant shall return, — a remnant of Jacob, — to 
Mighty-lord. 22 Surely, if thy people, O Israel, are to 
be as the sand of the Sea, a remnant thereof shall return. 
Destruction is decreed, onrushing is righteousness ; 2S for 
destruction, already ordained, will the Lord, Jehovah of 
Hosts, work in the midst of the whole earth. 24 There- 
fore, thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Fear not, O 
my people, that dwell in Zion ! Assyria ; though with 
the rod he smite you, and his staff he uplift after the 
manner of Egypt ; 2b for in yet a brief moment my ven- 
geance shall be completed, and my anger shall* accom- 
plish* his* ruin. 26 And Jehovah of Hosts will brandish 
over him a scourge, as when Midian were smitten at the 
rock Oreb ; and his staff over the sea will he uplift after 
the manner of Egypt. 27 And it shall come to pass in 
that day, that his burden shall be removed from yottr 
shoulders, and his yoke be broken off your necks. 

(d) He | hath f come f up f into f Benjamin f ; 28 he 
hath reached Ayyath ; he hath passed Migron ; at Mik- 
mash he depositeth his baggage ; 29 they have made the 
passage. " Geba shall be our bivouac." Ramah trem- 
bleth ; Gibea of Saul fleeth. 30 Cry aloud, O daughter 

* Text : upon their. f Text : yoke on account of fat. 



X. 30-XI. 9] 



TRANSLATION. 



79 



of Gallim ! listen, Laish ! Anathoth fainteth * ; 31 Mad- 
menah wandereth ; the dwellers in Gebim hurry away 
their cattle ; 32 this very day he will halt at Nob ; he will 
shake his hand against the mount of Zion the fair, the 
hill of Jerusalem. 33 Lo, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, will 
lop tlie foliage with a crash; and, the lofty in stature 
shall be felled, and the exalted shall come down: M yea, 
the thickets of the forest shall be cut down with the axe ; 
and Lebanon shall fall by a glorious One. 

(3) (a) a. xi l Then shall there come forth a shoot 
from the stump of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots 
shall bear fruit ; 2 for there shall rest on him the spirit 
of Jehovah, — the spirit of wisdom and insight, the spirit 
of prudence and might, the spirit of the knowledge and 
the fear of Jehovah: 3 his delight, also, shall be in the 
fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge by the sight of 
his eyes, nor decide from the hearing of his ears ; 4 but 
in righteousness shall he judge the lowly, and with 
equity decide for the humble of the land ; and he shall 
smite the violent f with the rod of his mouth, and with 
the breath of his lips shall he slay the godless. 5 Yea, 
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faith- 
fulness the cincture of his reins. 

ft. 6 Then shall the wolf rest with the lamb, and the 
leopard lie down with the kid; and the calf and the 
young lion shall J fatten J together, with a little boy to 
lead them. 7 The cow, too, and the bear shall com- 
pany^ together shall their young lie down, and the lion 
shall eat strazu like oxen. 8 Yea, the babe shall delight 
in the eye of the asp, and toward the viper's pupil shall 



* Text : afflicted. 
X Text : and failing. 



f Text : land. 
§ Text : feed. 



80 



ISAIAH. 



[XI. g-XII. 2 



the child stretch its hand. 9 They shall not hurt nor de- 
stroy in all my holy highlands ; for the land shall be filled 
with the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the 
Sea. 10 And it shall come to pass in that day, that to the 
root of Jesse, that standeth as a signal to the peoples, 
the nations shall come, and his abode shall be glorious. 

(b) 11 And it shall come to pass in t/iat day, that the 
Lord will a second time put forth his hand to redeem tlie 
remnant of his people, that are left from Assyria, and 
from Egypt, {and from PatJiros, and from Kusli, and from 
Elam, and from SJiinar, and from HamatJi, and from the 
countries on tJie Sea). 12 And he will uplift a signal to 
the nations, a7id gather tJie outcast of Israel, and collect 
the scattered of JudaJi, from the four quarters of the 
earth. 13 Then shall the envy of EpJiraim depart, and 
the vexers of Judah be destroyed: EpJiraim shall not 
envy Judah, nor shall Judah vex EpJiraim; 14 but tJiey 
shall pounce upon tJie shoulders of tJie Philistines west- 
ward, togetJier sJiall tJiey plunder tJie sons of the East; 
on Edom and on Moab sJiall tJiey lay Jiands, and tJie sons 
of Amnion shall obey them. lb JeJiovaJi will also dry* 
up * tJie tongue of tJie Egyptian Sea, and wave Jiis Jiand 
over the River, witJi Jiis mighty wind, and smite it into 
seven streams, that one can cross it in sandals. 16 Yea, 
there shall be a highway for the remnant of Jiis people 
tJiat are left from Assyria, as tJiere was for Israel in tJie 
day when they came up from Egypt. 

(c) a. xii - 1 And tJwu sJialt say in that day, I will praise 
thee, O JeJiovah ! for, thougJi tJiou wast angry witJi me, 
now that thy anger is turned, tJiou comfort est me. 2 Lo, 
tJie God of my deliverance ! I will trust and not trem- 

* Text : lay under ban. 



XII. 2-6, I. i] 



COMMENTS. 



81 



ble ; for my strength and my song was Jah {Jehovah), 
and he hath become my deliverance. 3 So shall ye with 
gladness draw water from wells of deliverance. 

/3. 4 And thou shalt say in that day, Praise Jehovah, 
call upon his name : make known among the peoples his 
deeds, {proclaim that his name is exalted). 5 Extol Jeho- 
vah, for he hath wrought gloriously ; let it be known in 
the whole earth. 6 Shout and sing, 0 dwellers in Zion ! 
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. 



COMMENTS. 

The Title (i. i). 

The first verse of the book of Isaiah introduces the 
reader to a collection of Revelations. Such revelations 
were sometimes received by the prophets in inspired 
dreams (i Chr. xvii. 15), but in the best period of He- 
brew prophecy they were the object of conscious in- 
sight (Hab. ii. 2).* Those in question are called the 
revelations of Isaiah, — whose name, in Hebrew Ye- 
shayahu, means Jehovah helped or saved (comp. Miihlau 
& Volck) — son of Amos, or, more exactly, Amos.| 
Comp. EV, Amos. On the family of Isaiah see Intr. 

* The Hebrew original, being a singular noun, is usually rendered, vis- 
ion; but it is used in a collective sense, as well as of a single revelation. 
So Hos. xii. 11/10, where the English version has the plural. There is 
therefore no reason why it should not stand in the title to a longer book 
than Obadiah, or even Nahum, and that, too, if it contained revelations 
of different dates. That it is here so used is plain from the terms by which 
it is modified. 

f pDKj compare the name of the shepherd of Tekoa. 



82 



ISAIAH. 



Stud. I. The subject of these revelations is Judah and 
Jerusalem ; i.e., Judah, and especially its capital. At 
first sight this seems hardly large enough to serve as a 
subject for more than the first chapter; but the analogy 
of " Israel" in the title to the book of Amos, and the 
fact that the same words are evidently not to be taken 
strictly where they recur in ii. i, makes it possible, if 
necessary, to interpret them as the subject of all the 
prophecies of Isaiah. The prophet, himself, however, 
probably did not prefix them to his works. He would 
have said Jerusalem and Judah. See iii. I, 8 ; v. 3 ; 
xxii. 21. Next follows a temporal clause, by which the 
application of the preceding words is more clearly de- 
fined. The revelations of Isaiah began in the days of 
Uzziah, or Azariah (2 Kgs. xv. 1), in whose last year he 
received his call (vi. 1). For his date, as well as for 
those of the other kings mentioned, see Intr. Stud. II. 
Uzziah was followed by Jotham, not mentioned else- 
where in this book ; Ahaz, mentioned also vii. 1 ff. ; 
xiv. 28, and xxxviii. 8, — whom his Assyrian master calls 
lauhazi, i.e., Jehoahaz (Schrader, KAT } 257 f.); and 
finally by Hezekiah, whose name does not occur else- 
where except in the appendix, xxxvi.-xxxix. The form 
of his name here used, by the way, is a later one than 
that found in the chapters taken from the books of 
Kings.* It, therefore, like the phrase Judah and Jeru- 
salem, shows that the title is the work of an editor ; 

* It has four forms in the Old Testament : l.TpiH, the usual one in the 
books of Kings, and the parallel chapters of Isaiah ; iTpTPl, found only 
2 Kgs. xviii. 1, 10, 14, 15, 16, 37 ; Prv. xxv. I ; l.TpTrP, the almost inva- 
riable form in the books of Chronicles, but used only three times (here ; 
2 Kgs. xx. 10 ; Jer. xv. 4) outside of them ; and iTplfT, which occurs 
only in the titles to the books of Hosea and Micah. 



I. I, 2] 



COMMENTS. 



S3 



while the relative clause, as a whole, makes it necessary 
to suppose that the author of it intended it to include 
at least the genuine portions of chapters i.-xxxix. Per- 
haps it originally belonged to them, and was retained, 
in spite of its increased inexactness, when the collection 
was enlarged to its present dimensions.* 

At the beginning of the collection stands the prophecy 
called by Ewald "the great arraignment," which, in view 
of its character and office, may be entitled 

A. AN INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY (i. 2-31). 
It deals with three general topics, the first of which 

is 

1. The Perversity of God's People (yv. 2-9). 

This is looked at from two different standpoints. In 
the first place, 

a. THE BASENESS OF IT (vv. 2-4) 

is set forth in the strongest terms. 

2. The prophet invokes heaven . . . and earth, all 
creation. It is no ordinary occasion. He is to speak, 
but the words that he utters are not to be his. He 
speaks because Jehovah himself hath spoken. Comp. 
Deut. xxxii. 1 ; Mic. vi. 1 f. ; Ps. 1. 4. In fact he repre- 
sents Jehovah as entering a complaint against his Chil- 
dren. The word is emphatic by position. The force of 
it, therefore, is, that the offence to be described might 
have been excused if he had treated the offenders as 

* The theory that the title, in a shorter form, originally belonged to 
the first chapter (Vitringa) has less to recommend it. 



ISAIAH. 



P. 2, 3 



servants or aliens; — but children! He tells what he 
has done for them : reared them, and brought them up * 
(not exalted. See xxiii. 4 ; Ezek. xxxi. 4 ; comp. Cheyne) ; 
fulfilled the tender office of a father toward them, they, 
however, on their part, and in contrast with him, have 
revolted ; voluntarily and ruthlessly sundered the tie that 
bound them to him. 

3. This is unnatural, worse than brutish ; for, An ox 
knoweth its owner ; f manifests a certain attachment in 
return for its owner's care ; so, also, even an ass (Hos. 
xi. 4 ; Jer. viii. 7) ; — but these children ! And now he 
abandons the figure hitherto employed, and says dis- 
tinctly that it is Israel who have been guilty of the con- 
duct described. Israel must here mean the Hebrews, 
as a people, including both kingdoms. When, there- 
fore, Jehovah says that he has reared them, he must 
refer to their providentially nourished growth from a 
single family into the great and honored nation over 
which David and Solomon ruled (Gen. xii. 1 f . ; 1 Kgs. 
iv. 21); and when he adds, that they have not under- 
stood, leaving the object to be supplied, it must be their 
wonderful history of which he is thinking (Hos. xi. 3)4 
No ; although he has taken them into so close relations 
with himself, that he could say of them, as of no other 
people under the sun, my people, he has to lament that 
they have not considered the goodness thus manifested 
toward them. This is the negative side of Jehovah's 
complaint ; there is a positive. 

* For Wtm read TOMn* See Dri. § 132. 
t On rbw, see Ges. § 124, 1, c. 

% Compare the Vulgate, which supplies me ; and the Septuagint, which 
has the pronoun both in this clause and the one following. 



COMMENTS. 



S5 



4. The presentation of this side begins with an Ah ! 
here, as in v. 24, an expression, not of sympathy, but of 
serious displeasure.* Then follows a description of 
Israel in their estrangement from their God. He calls 
them an erring nation, a nation devoted to evil, in the 
practice of which they have become laden f with iniq- 
uity, an accumulation of sinful acts (Ps. xxxviii. 4/3). 
They are seed of evil-doers. This is usually understood 
in the sense of brood of evil-doers ; — see "generation of 
vipers," Matt. hi. 7; — but it is more natural, in view of 
what precedes and follows, to take seed as meaning the 
generation addressed, and evil-doers as an epithet for 
their wicked fathers (Henry). This and the following 
phrase, therefore, taken together, might be rendered 
evil sons of evil sires. Comp. Orelli. At any rate, they 
are no longer the children of Jehovah ; for they have 
not only recklessly forsaken, they have wilfully rejected, 
the Holy One of Israel. This name for God first ap- 
pears in the prophecies of Isaiah, and it is seldom — 
only five times — found except in the book called by his 
name. Its precise significance is disputed, but the fol- 
lowing seems to be the correct interpretation. Jehovah 
is called the Holy One on account of his absolute tran- 
scendence above everything finite ; by virtue of which, 
he is an appropriate object of reverence and adoration 
(vi. 3 ; xvii. 7 f.). He is called the Holy One of Israel 
on account of the especial manifestations of his holiness, 
in the sense explained, in the history of the Hebrews ; 

* The first three clauses of the verse are as many examples of parono- 
masia, the effect of which cannot be reproduced in English without taking 
too much liberty with the text. 

t On 123, see Ges. § 93, 2, R. 2. 



86 



ISAIAH. 



[I- 4, 5 



by virtue of which he justly claims from them peculiar 
gratitude and confidence (Ps. Ixxviii. 41 f. ; Isa. xli. 14). 
See WRSmith, PI, 224 f . ; Baudissin, SSR, II. 115 ff. 
When, therefore, the prophet says that his people have 
rejected the Holy One of Israel, he means what he said 
in other words in v. 2, that they have denied the One to 
whom they owe their existence as a nation.* 

There can be no doubt of the baseness of such con- 
duct. 

b. THE FOLLY OF IT (vv. 5-9) 

is made equally apparent. 

5. The paragraph opens with a protest ; Why ? not, 
zv/iere f (Vulgate) ; for the form of the following verb 
(plural) indicates that the representation of Israel as a 
single sufferer begins only with the next sentence. f 
Why, he says, should ye increase your stripes (lit. be 
smitten still 'i)? implying that they have already suf- 
fered. The rest of the sentence, by continued apostasy 
(lit. [ Why] should ye add apostasy), explains their past 
and present suffering. They have been, and are, af- 
flicted because they have been disloyal to their God. 
Xow follows a description of their condition. They 
are a bruised and mangled bodv : the whole head . . . 
and heart, the vital parts, and that in their entirety, 

* The last dause, become apostate, adds nothing to the meaning of 
the verse; and, as its omission from the Septuagint, as well as the disturb- 
ance in the rhythm which it produces, indicates, is doubtless an interpo- 
lation. Cheyne (Zfi/) and others pronounce the whole paragraph of 
doubtful genuineness, but this opinion seems based on a mistaken exe- 
gesis. The interpretation above given necessitates no such conclusion. 

f On the use of "2 b'J, see Num. xxii. 32, etc. 

j On the accentuation of see Wickes, HPA, 134, 



I. 5, 6] 



COMMENTS. 



87 



are seriously affected.* This is a figurative way of 
saying, not that the Hebrews were thoroughly cor- 
rupted by sin (Cheyne), although that was doubtless 
the case, but that they were completely demoralized 
by the blows with which they had been smitten, f 
And no wonder, to judge from the severity of these 
blows. 

6. From the sole ... to the very head one looks in 
vain for an uninjured spot (comp. 2 Sam. xiv. 25) ; i.e., 
the whole country and people have felt the heavy hand 
of an angry Deity (ix. 13/14). He has punished them 
in all sorts of ways. There are (figurative) wounds, and 
wales, and fresh sores ;{ the country is " bleeding at 
every pore"; and not the least relief has been, or is 
likely to be, experienced. It is not necessary to trace 
the exact application of the medical terms that follow, 
but it will be worth while to dwell on them long enough 
to understand their literal meaning. Wounds, it seems, 
were first purged (lit. pressed out), if they needed it, 
until the blood or pus had all been discharged ; § then 
they were bound up ; finally they were moistened with 
oil or wine, the former of which was highly esteemed 

* The word ^5, without an article following, is usually rendered every ; 
but since there are exceptions {e.g., ix. 11/12), and the strict rendering 
would require one to give to the word head, in this verse a literal, and in 
the next a figurative, interpretation, it seems best to translate it all. Comp. 
Delitzsch. 

f If the sentence will not bear this interpretation, it is probably not 
genuine. It might, in fact, be omitted without disturbing the context. 
% These nouns are all singular in the original. 

§ The form Ml is sometimes derived from Till (Siegfried & Stade), 
and sometimes from 11T (Bredenkamp) ; but it is rather to be regarded as 
an example of the (rare) passive of the first stem of 111. See Ols. § 245,1; 
comp. Ges. § 67, R. 1. 



ss 



ISAIAH. 



[1-6,7 



among the Hebrews for its soothing and healing prop- 
erties (Luk. x. 34; Josephus, A J, xvii. 6, 5).* 

7. The prophet now deserts the figure thus far em- 
ployed, and describes to his people in plain terms the 
results of their apostasy. Your land, including town 
and country, he says, is a desert ; and then proceeds to 
explain what he means by this statement. It is a land 
whose cities are burned, and whose soil, or the produce 
of it, strangers devour in the very eyes of its starving 
cultivators. There follows a comparison which occurs 
several times elsewhere in the Old Testament (Am. iv. 
11 ; Isa. xiii. 19; Deu. xxix. 22/23; J er - xnx - J 8; 1- 40). 
In this case it is probably a gloss, since it represents 
the devastation as like that when Sodom f was over- 
thrown ; i.e., complete (Gen. xix. 24 f.), whereas the next 
verse makes an important exception. 

* The feminine form HM""), been softened, may have been chosen to 
denote that its subject is either of the preceding nouns, two of which are 
feminine (Dillmann) ; but it may also be explained as impersonal, and 
thus properly rendered by the plural. 

f The text has D'HT, strangers, which has been variously rendered : as 
the subject of the preceding verbal noun, thus : like an overthrow by 
strangers (Dillmann); as the direct object, thus: like an overthrow of 
strangers (Delitzsch) ; or, finally, as the indirect object, thus: as if turned 
over to strangers (Buhl). The second is the only one of these renderings 
that really deserves notice; and its only claim to consideration lies in the 
fact that it can be interpreted as an allusion to the destruction of Sodom, 
with reference to which nSSHD, overthrow, is always elsewhere used. If, 
however, that event is here meant, it is most reasonable to suppose that 
the author of the gloss, adopting the current formula, wrote ESYTD, Sodom ; 
and that D h "lT, which precedes it by only a few words, was carelessly sub- 
stituted by a copyist; and this supposition is strengthened by the fact that 
the whole clause is of doubtful genuineness. Of course, the objection to 
D^IT holds against D^T, in the sense of inundation, an emendation sug- 
gested by Lowth. 



I. 8, 9] 



COMMENTS. 



89 



8. That exception is Zion the fair (lit. daughter Zion) * 
Jerusalem, under the figure of a young and beautiful 
female. See xxxvii. 22; comp. xlvii. 1; Jer. xlvi. 11 ; 
etc. She is left, but like a booth in a vineyard. It has 
always been necessary to guard the vineyards while 
the grapes were ripening in Palestine. The watchman 
builds a booth of green boughs, in which he finds shelter 
and lies in wait for marauders. It is a booth of this 
kind, deserted, and harried by the winds of a Judean 
winter, to which the prophet compares his native city. 
See Thomson, LB, II. 424. A similar structure pro- 
tected the guardian of a field of cucumbers. The cucum- 
ber, in two varieties, is still cultivated extensively in 
Egypt (Num. xi. 5) and Palestine, and freely eaten, raw 
or cooked, by the inhabitants. See Tristram, NHB, 
441 f. The idea of isolation is further emphasized by a 
third comparison. Zion, although not actually invested, 
is like a city besieged, one about which the country has 
been ravaged by the enemy, f 

9. Her survival is a miracle. Jehovah of Hosts, — as 
he is most frequently called in the books of Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi, while Amos and 
Hosea use "Jehovah, the God of Hosts," % — when they 

* On the construction, see Ges. § 130, 5. 

f The verb "ISM, like Ittttf, usually means watch in a friendly sense; but 
Jer. iv. i6f. is proof that both may be used of hostile observation. It is 
therefore unnecessary to resort to any of the forced interpretations which 
have been suggested by commentators; e.g., a resetted city (JDMichaelis) ; 
a garden tower (Scheid) ; or a fortified outpost (Hitzig); or the equally 
unsatisfactory emendations; e.g., booth, for TU, city (Scheid); or, for 
miW, mi3£3 from TlX (Dillmann), or miM (Weir). It would be better, 
with Studer, to omit the clause altogether. 

X On the construction, see Ges. § 125, 2, R. 2; comp. Henderson, i.l. 



90 



ISAIAH. 



[I.g 



were seemingly on the verge of destruction, left them 

— Isaiah says us, identifying himself with his people in 
the recognition of the divine hand in their deliverance 

— a remnant (lit. a survivor) ; i.e., Zion. If he had not 
thus intervened, they would soon * have been as Sodom ; 
i.e., utterly destroyed. Comp. v. 7. 

The prophet, in these last three verses, is evidently 
describing an existing situation. If this situation can 
be correctly identified, the date of the prophecy will 
have been determined. There is wide difference of 
opinion with reference to it. It has been identified 
with that which resulted from the invasion of Judah 
by Pekah of Israel and Resin of Syria in the reign of 
Jotham, mentioned 2 Kgs. xv. 37 (Driver); or in the 
reign of Ahaz, as reported 2 Kgs. xvi. 5, and more fully 
2 Chr. xxviii. 5 ff. (Orelli). In favor of both of these 
views, is the evidence that Judah, supposing it to be 
the country here meant, actually suffered from these 
invasions ; also the position of this chapter at the begin- 
ning of the prophecies of Isaiah; but it is hardly safe 
to judge of the date of a prophecy by its position in 
the collection ; or of the actual course of events, from the 
narrative of the Chronicler, — especially in view of the 
estimate of the danger from the allied kings that Isaiah 
gave Ahaz. If they had done, or were likely to do, 
much damage, he would not have called them " smok- 
ing stumps of firebrands " (vii. 4). Comp. Hackmann, 
ZJ, 1 1 5 ff . A safer view is that which sees in these 

* The transfer of soon, from the first to the second half of the 

verse, in disregard of the accents as fixed by Jewish authorities (Wickes, 
HP A, 134), is required by the rhythm and authorized by such passages as 
Ps. lxxxi. 15/14. Comp. Orelli. 



COMMENTS. 



91 



verses a picture of Judah and Jerusalem during the 
invasion of Sennacherib in 701 (Cheyne, IBI)\ but to 
it, also, there are serious objections. In the first place, 
it ignores the connection. It is clear from the context, 
that, at the time of the devastation described, the wor- 
ship at Jerusalem, with its numerous sacrifices, pro- 
ceeded as usual; which cannot have been the case 
while Sennacherib occupied the country, or for some 
time after his withdrawal. Secondly, it ignores the 
difference in tone — note especially the absence of any 
resentment against the authors of the devastation — 
between this whole chapter and the prophecies that 
unmistakably belong to the date suggested. The two 
views, therefore, one or the other of which is accepted 
by most interpreters, are alike unsatisfactory ; and it 
is necessary to look for a better than either. One gets 
some light on the subject by noticing to whom the 
prophecy is addressed. In the third verse the subject 
is Israel in the larger sense, the Hebrew people. They 
are the sinful nation of the fourth ; and since, as most 
will concede, the discourse is continuous, it must be 
they, or as many of them as survive, whose land is a 
desert, etc. The land, therefore, must be Palestine. 
This has not, however, been entirely devastated. Zion 
has been spared (v. 8). But Zion here means Jerusa- 
lem, and Jerusalem, to Isaiah, sometimes at least means 
Judah. See the phrase Jerusalem and Judah. If, now, 
Zion here be taken in the larger sense, and the com- 
parison to a city, as well as the context, seems to require 
such an interpretation, one is almost driven to the con- 
clusion that the situation is that which existed in 720, 
when Sargon had completely subjugated Samaria and 



92 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 9, 10 



pushed his conquests to the border of Egypt. This 
date satisfies all reasonable requirements. It explains 
the devastation of the country and the isolation of Zion. 
It accounts, also, for the attitude of Isaiah toward the 
invaders, and his expectation of future trouble for his 
people. Moreover, by referring this chapter to the 
first of Sargon's reign, one fills a gap in the prophecies 
of Isaiah for which there is no other explanation.* 

Is it possible that these severe misfortunes are unde- 
served ? that the people have, after all, been loyal to 
Jehovah their God? As if in answer to some such 
suggestion the prophet now presents 

2. The Requirements of Jehovah (vv. 10-20) ; 
first negatively, as to 

a. THE FORMS OF RELIGION {vv. 10-15 a) . 

10. He does not retract anything : in fact, he resumes 
his discourse with increased severity, addressing his 
people as rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah ; 
which means that, although they have escaped the fate 
of the cities of the Plain, it is not because they deserved 
less severe treatment. He arraigns them again in the 
name of Jehovah ; for, the law to which he bids them 
give ear, is not a written code, but the inspired discourse 
that he is about to utter. See viii. 6. Then he pro- 
ceeds to enumerate the numerous observances by which 
they thought that they were pleasing God ; and pro- 

* For an account of Sargon's operations in Palestine in 722 and 720 B.C., 
see Intr. Stud. II. 



I. 10-12] 



COMMENTS. 



93 



noimces them one after another, not only worthless, 
but offensive to him. 

11. He represents Jehovah as contemptuously reject- 
ing their sacrifices : bloody offerings, including, first, 
burnt offerings ; i.e., such as were wholly consumed 
before Jehovah in the manner described Lev. i. 10 ff. 
There was another kind, peace offerings, of which the 
fat was burned (Lev. hi.), while the remainder was 
divided between the priest and the worshipper (Lev. vii. 
28 ff. ; comp. Deu. xviii. 3). the blood of the various 
sacrifices was variously treated ; but it was always 
sacred to Jehovah (Lev. i. 5; iv. 6 f., 25). Here he 
refuses to accept it. 

12. He rebukes their zeal for feasts. When ye come, 
he says, as every male was required to do three times 
a year (Ex. xxiii. 15 ; Deu. xvi. 16), to see my face ; * to 
present themselves at the place where God was accus- 
tomed to manifest himself. It was possible, on such 
an occasion, to draw very near to the Deity, to see his 
power and his glory (Ps. lxiii. 3/2) ; but this experience 
could only come to the upright (Ps. xi. 8/7). Those 
addressed were not of this class. Their worship, there- 
fore, could only be a hollow form, of which Jehovah 

* This is the only natural rendering for whether followed, as in 

this case, by face of, or, as in Ex. xxxiv. 24 and Deu. xxxi. 11, by 
"w£ T,K; although, of course, "2 TiK sometimes means before (Gen. xix. 13). 
In all these cases the punctuation has been changed from JTIK'*:'?, to see, to 
ri'tt"^, to appear, in harmony with the notion that the original was for- 
bidden by such passages as Ex. xxxiii. 20. A corresponding change has 
been made in Ex. xxiii. 15, xxxiv. 20, and Ps. xlii. 3, with and in 
Ex. xxiii. 17 (where MS is a scribal error for "2 xxxiv. 23, and 

I Sam. i. 22, with "22 flX. The explanation of "2 as an accusative denot- 
ing the limit of motion (Xagelsbach), or depending as an object upon the 
verb (Orelli), is forced and unsatisfactory. 



94 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 12, 13 



might justly say, who hath required of you this — 
trampling, like so many brute beasts, of my courts ? * 

i.e., the courts of the temple at Jerusalem, where this 
discourse may have been delivered. 

13. In this verse Jehovah goes farther than in either 
of the two preceding, and forbids the presentation of 
the vegetable offering. It was generally brought with 
an animal to be sacrificed ; but, in certain cases, it con- 
stituted the entire oblation (Lev. ii. ; v. 11 ff .). It is 
here described as worthless, because, in the case in 
hand, it was not the expression of a proper attitude 
toward God. For this reason, also, the smoke that 
arose when parts of it were burned, instead of being 
a "sweet savor" (Lev. ii. 2, etc.), was detestable to 
him \ (Prv. xxi. 27). Equally abominable is the New 
moon, a festival observed among the Hebrews, as 
among the ancients generally, from the earliest times 
(1 Sam. xx. 5 ; 2 Kgs. iv. 23), but not made so promi- 
nent in the law as might have been expected. It is not 
mentioned among the sacred seasons in Lev. xxiii., 
but the offerings required for its observance are de- 
tailed in Num. xxviii. 1 1 ff . The proclamation of holiday 
refers to those days of the annual feasts when no ser- 
vile work was permitted (Lev. xxiii.). % All these sacred 

* The Septuagint connects this last clause with the first of the following 
verse. So, also, Duhm, for one reason because the connection of 
from your hand, with Cttl, trample, seems to him ridiculous. See, how- 
ever, the precisely similar phrase E'T, lit. hands to flee, Jos. viii. 20. 

f This is the rendering required by the accentuation. See Wickes, 
HPA, 134; comp. the Septuagint, etc. 

\ The word K*lptt is generally rendered assembly or convocation ; but 
such a translation does not suit the context, nor is it any more satisfactory 
in the other connections in which the word is evidently used in the same 



I. I3-I5 3 ] 



COMMENTS. 



95 



seasons cease to be sacred, and become profane, and 
to Jehovah unendurable, when his people unite false- 
hood, disloyalty to him and his word (Hos. xi. 12), with 
festivity (lit. festival) .* 

14. In the phrases Your new moons and your feasts, 
therefore, the emphasis should be on your. Of these 
Jehovah says, that his soul hateth them. This is the 
human way of expressing the inevitable moral repulsion 
induced in the divine nature by the approach of un- 
worthy worshippers. The harshness of the expression 
is somewhat relieved by the following sentence ; for the 
word weary implies patience, a struggle between mercy 
and repugnance.! 

15a. But the time for patience is past. Already, 
says Jehovah, when ye spread out % your hands, as the 
Hebrews were accustomed to do in prayer (Ex. ix. 29 ; 
1 Kgs. viii. 22), I hide my eyes from you. In the 
Hebrew religion prayer was an important element of 
worship, since it revealed the worshipper's purpose in 

signification as in this passage, Its real meaning may be gathered from 
the chapter above referred to (Lev. xxiii.) , where it occurs, always with 
UHp, holiness, no fewer than ten times. The fourth verse, literally trans- 
lated, reads: "These are the seasons of Jehovah, the holy D*SOpft, which 
ye shall proclaim in their seasons." Here D^XIptt, whatever it may mean, 
is an appositive of the word translated seasons, and therefore refers to the 
days to be designated, and not to any ceremony performed on those days. 
In like manner, in v. 3, fcOpE is an appositive of sabbath, and therefore 
must mean a day fixed by authority; with the addition of UHp, a day pro- 
claimed holy, a holiday. The omission here of 'Clp is easily explained. 

* In Am. v. 21 rHJbl? corresponds to 3 PI, feast ; in Lev. xxiii. 36 it is a 
synonym of *£1p KPpft, holiday. 

f The form Kt£?3, for TiKw', bear, is very rare, occurring elsewhere only 
xviii. 3 and Gen. iv. 13. See Ges. § 76, 2, a\ comp. the Septuagint. 

\ On CSw"£, see Ges. § 61, 1, R. 2. 



96 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 15a, 155 



approaching Jehovah (Gen. xii. 8; 1 Sam. i. 11). When, 
therefore, Jehovah says that he ignores the prayers of 
his unworthy suppliants, it is the same as saying, that 
their worship is not only offensive to him, but useless 
to themselves. Nor will he be entreated, although they 
multiply prayers ; i.e., however earnestly they may en- 
treat him.* 

These verses are very significant. In the first place, 
they were evidently suggested by Am. v. 21 ff., a fact 
which, alone, ought to prevent one from referring them, 
whatever might be thought of the rest of the chapter, 
to so late a date as that of Sennacherib's invasion. See 
ii. 6 ff., ix. 7/8 ff. They also reveal the existence, in 
Isaiah's time, of a complete cultus at Jerusalem, which 
must have employed many priests and other attendants, 
and undoubtedly was conducted more or less in accord- 
ance with written regulations. On the other hand, it is 
clear, from the attitude of Isaiah toward the forms of 
religion, that they had not yet acquired the sanctity 
which such regulations would have given them, if 
already recognized as the law of Jehovah. 

This sweeping condemnation of the hypocritical zeal 
of the day has prepared the way for a positive declara- 
tion by Jehovah as to 

b. THE SUBSTANCE OF PIETY (vv. 15^-20). 

It has two sides, the first of which is 

(l) The Outward Manifestation (vv. 1 5^—17). — 15*. Now 
appears, more clearly than heretofore, the reason for the 

* The last clause of this verse belongs to the next paragraph. 



I. I5&-I6&] 



COMMENTS. 



97 



strong language of the preceding section. Your hands, 
the very hands uplifted to him in supplication, says 
Jehovah, are full of blood. It is hardly to be supposed 
that all those to whom these words were addressed 
were, strictly speaking, guilty of murder ; the meaning 
must rather be, that, as a class, they were given to 
violence, which might, and sometimes actually did, issue 
in the death of their less powerful fellows. See v. 21 ; 
comp. Duhm. (160) From this stain they are to wash, 
cleanse* themselves ; not by any ceremonial observance 
(Gen. xxxv. 2 ; Lev. xiv. 8), nor, so far as yet appears, 
by any supernatural process : it is a matter of life and 
conduct. Their sinful habits and practices have made 
them offensive to Jehovah ; they cannot hope for his 
favor except they remove these evil deeds from his 
sight; i.e., renounce them, and come into his presence 
without them. Comp. Jer. xviii. 8.f 

1 65. It is not enough, however, that one should 
change one's course ; one must continue in the better 
way. Jehovah, therefore, requires that those who 
would please him Cease to do evil. Nor is this all : 
(17) they must learn to do well; exchange the old habit 
of doing evil for the customary practice of good. This 
thought is further developed. They have delighted in 
injustice; they must with equal eagerness Seek justice. 
This is a general requirement, under which the rest are 
specifications. The first special duty is to correct the 
oppressor. Those were lawless times, when such as had 
power were constantly tempted to use it to the disad- 
vantage of the weak. These oppressors are to be 

* On Din, see Ges. § 54, 2, b, R. 

f The last clause of this verse, also, belongs to the verse following. 



98 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 16&-18 



taught to respect the rights of their fellows (Ex. xxiii. 
2). As in the Law (Ex. xxii. 22; Deu. xxiv. 17), two 
classes are here especially commended to the care of 
those who seek Jehovah's favor. They are to judge 
the orphan ; i.e., as rulers ; for it is evident from the 
term used, that here, as in the most of Isaiah's proph- 
ecies, the governing classes are addressed. They are 
to see that the cause of the fatherless is brought to a 
just and a speedy termination (Deu. xxv. 1). They 
are also to defend the widow ; take her part against her 
adversaries. 

This is a very brief list of virtues, and they are all of 
the same order. The explanation of these facts is not 
far to seek. The times were such that it was a fair 
test of one's relation to Jehovah to inquire whether one 
possessed these civic virtues. Moreover, this enumera- 
tion is followed by a declaration concerning 

(2) The Inward Disposition (yv. 18-20), — from which 
alone such manifestations could be expected. 

18. Come now does not introduce an appeal, but, as 
the context would lead one to expect, a proposition ; viz. 
let us come to an understanding (lit. judge one another) ; 
settle the terms on which the present antagonism shall 
cease. These terms Jehovah himself submits to his 
rebellious children for their acceptance. In the first 
place he makes a concession. They have sinned against 
him and richly deserved, not only the misfortunes that 
they have already suffered, but much severer penalties. 
These he proposes to remit : though your sins be as 
scarlet, — and some of them, in their glaringness, might 
well be compared to stuff of the most brilliant of col- 



f. 18, 19] 



COMMENTS. 



99 



ors,* — he says, they shall become white as snow: the 

stain which they have made shall be entirely removed 
(Ps. li. 9/7); of course, on the condition already stated 
{v. 16), and to be repeated in another form, that the sin- 
ners themselves renounce their evil deeds. In other 
words, Jehovah proclaims a general amnesty as the first 
article of the new covenant, f The repetition of this 
announcement in slightly different language % gives one 
time to realize the greatness of the grace that dictated it. 

19. The second article states what is expected by 
Jehovah of the other parties to the covenant. The sig- 
nificant word in it is willing. By willingness is meant 
the voluntary subordination of the human to the divine 
will by which the ancient worthies were characterized 
(Ps. xxv. 4f.), and of which Jesus, in his life and death, 
was the perfect example (Mat. xxvi. 36 ff.). To willing 
is added obedient ; i.e., giving expression to the dispo- 
sition required. The result is the only sort of works 
acceptable to Jehovah (1 Sam. xv. 22). With such, 
however, he is well pleased. He therefore promises 
these recreant Jews that, if they will pursue the path of 
obedience, instead of seeing their country despoiled 

* The color named was produced from the coccus ilicis, an insect of the 
size of a small pea, found on a species of oak in the countries about the 
Mediterranean. The Arabic name of the insect is kermes, whence the 
English crimson. 

f Other interpretations have been suggested. The most important are : 
that of Duhm, who renders the apodosis as an ironical demand; and that 
of JDMichaelis, who translates it as a question. Neither of them seems to 
justify his view from the context. See also Gesenius, i.l. 

% The same color is meant in both cases. In the second the Hebrew 
name is worm, which, like vermilion, denotes the source from 

which the color is obtained, and is sometimes found either before or after 
^tP. Comp. Ex. xxv. 4 and Lev. xiv. 4. 



100 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 19, 20 



they shall eat the best of the land; enjoy the utmost 
prosperity (Am. ix. 11 ff.). 

20. This is the portion of those who accept the terms 
proposed. What if they are wilful, careless of the 
will of their God, and rebellious, resisting his claims 
upon them ? The answer is forthcoming : they are to 
taste the sword ; * die by the sword, as so many of their 
people have lately done. The declaration, the mouth of 
Jehovah hath spoken, is by the prophet in his own per- 
son; perhaps, however, it might be regarded as a solemn 
acknowledgment of the foregoing, the signature, as it 
were, of Jehovah. 

In the preceding paragraph the way was opened for 
the return of the unhappy remnant of Israel to right- 
eousness and prosperity. The prophet seems to have 
known that the overtures of Jehovah would be useless. 
At any rate, he proceeds with his discourse as if they 
had already been rejected, bringing new accusations 
against his countrymen, and warning them of the chas- 
tisements by which the nation, or Jerusalem as repre- 
senting it, is to be purified. This closing division of the 
chapter may be entitled 

3. The Faithful Town (vv. 21-31). 
The first verses are devoted to a description of 

* The text reads, ibs&ri which is rendered, either, ye shall be 

devoured by the sword (Delitzsch, who quotes Ps. xvii. 13), or, ye shall be 
made to devour the sword (Hitzig, who cites Jer. ix. 14) ; but the former of 
these disturbs the parallelism, and the latter seems far-fetched; hence it is 
better to give the verb the form and the translation above adopted. 

Comp. further Ges. § 121, 3; Mul, § 419, R. a. 



I. 21, 22] 



COMMENTS. 



101 



a. ITS DEGENERACY (vv. 21-23). 

21. Its condition fills him with surprise and sorrow. 
How, he exclaims ; i.e., Alas ! can it be ? how hath the 
faithful town become a harlot ! Then he explains what 
he means by a faithful town : one whose inhabitants 
love and practise righteousness.* He also explains the 
term harlot. The relation between Jehovah and his 
people was early and often compared to the nuptial tie, 
and unfaithfulness on the part of the latter represented 
as adultery. The figure is a favorite one with Hosea, 
who, in his first three chapters, has wellnigh exhausted 
it. See also Eze. xvi. The sin most frequently denounced 
under this name is idolatry (Ex. xxxiv. 15 f . ), which is 
charged in v. 29 ; but here it evidently includes only the 
offences against justice enumerated in v. 23.! 

22. There follow two metaphors. The city is ad- 
dressed. Thy silver, pure metal, says the prophet, has 
become dross; i.e., to bring it into harmony with the 
other figure, and with the development of this one in 
v. 25, has been debased by dross, as in counterfeit coins 
(Eze. xxii. 18). % He adds : thy drink, genuine, unadul- 
terated wine, such as one would buy of an honest 
dealer, is diluted (lit. circumcise d\ robbed of its strength, 
and flavor, and value. § One has no right to conclude 

* On T1*6&, full, see Ges. § 90, 3, a. The Septuagint supplies as its 
subject Zion. 

f Duhm is probably right in pronouncing the last words of this verse, 
but now murderers, a gloss suggested by v. 15. They certainly disturb the 
rhythm and produce an anticlimax. See also Cheyne, TBI. 

% This figure is finely elaborated by Aristophanes, in The Frogs. See 
especially the translation of JHFrere, Works, III. 278 f. 

§ Compare the Latin castrare vinum, and the German Wein taufen. 



102 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 22-24 



from this passage that the Hebrews drank their wine 
clear, but only that they wanted it unmixed when they 
bought it. 

23. The figures used are now applied ; and it appears 
that, as usual, the prophet has in mind the upper classes. 
It is they who have been debased and weakened. 
Comp. Skinner. This he charges in so many words, 
introducing his indictment by a paronomasia borrowed 
from Hosea (ix. 1 5 ), which may be rendered: Thy princes, 
those whose duty it was to administer justice, are un- 
principled (lit. rebels) ; viz. against the Judge of all the 
earth. They are partners of thieves, whom they acquit 
for a share in their plunder. They love a bribe, a bid 
for their judicial honor; and chase after fees; eagerly 
abuse their offices for money. On the other hand, they 
neglect those who cannot reward them. Thus the 
orphan appeals to them in vain for justice ; and, how- 
ever just or urgent may be the widow's case, it doth not 
reach them ; never so much as secures a hearing. 

This is a sad condition of things. It cannot but 

o 

arouse the wrath of Jehovah. What will be the result ? 
Will he destroy the last remnant of his people ? Isaiah 
hopes not ; indeed, although he sees how degenerate 
Jerusalem has become, he predicts 

b. ITS REGENERATION [vv. 24-31). 

24. First, however, it must be purged from its impuri- 
ties. The description of the process by which this is 
to be accomplished is introduced by the Therefore that 
regularly connects an indictment with the sentence in 
which it issues. The accumulation of divine names is 



1. 24, 25] 



COMMENTS. 



103 



intended to add solemnity to the declaration that follows, 
the Lord, through the mistaken conservatism of trans- 
lators and revisers, is a very frequent appellation for 
God in the English version. The only word properly 
so rendered is comparatively rare in the original.* the 
Champion (lit. the Strong One) of Israel, elsewhere always 
Jacob, in this connection can only mean the defender of 
Israel against themselves. See Gen. xlix. 24. This 
great and terrible Being cries Ha ! like a warrior going 
to battle. He is indeed about to punish his adversaries, 
who, this time, are neither the Egyptians nor the Ca- 
naanites, nor the Syrians, nor any other foreign people, 
but his own apostate children.! 

25. This becomes clear when he says, I will turn my 
hand against thee ; i.e., Jerusalem, whose silver has 
become debased, etc. It also now becomes apparent 
that his fury, like the fire by which the silver ore is 
smelted in the furnace, % and the lead, which is frequently 

* The noun J*TK, without suffixes, occurs with the article five times (i. 
24; hi. I; x. 16, 33; xix. 4) in Isaiah, always with T'X^jJ Jehovah of 

Hosts ; elsewhere only three times; twice (Ex. xxxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23) with 
mrP, and once (Mai. iii. 1) without any further designation. It is used 
only seven times without the article : once (Ps. cxiv. 7) alone, and six 
times (Jos. iii. II, 13; Mic. iv. 13; Zee. iv. 14; vi. 5; Ps. xcvii. 5) fol- 
lowed by ""IKH h-, all the earth. The form ^"TK, in the sense of the 
Lord (third person), is more common; but, according to Furst, it is 
found only sixty-nine times in the entire Old Testament. Duhm pro- 
nounces r'K— !* 1T1T in this case a gloss; but since, as above shown, it 
always elsewhere accompanies f'^iKH, and ~l*3&, champion of Israel, 

like 2pIT T3&, champion of Jacob, would naturally be applied to God as 
the defender of his people, it is better, if the line is to be shortened, to 
drop this third, rather than the second, title. So Budde, ZA W, 1891, 246. 

t On n&p3, see Ges. § 51, R. 4. 

\ The text has "133, either, as in the great .versions, thoroughly, or, as 
■with a flux (Ges. § n8, 6, d) ; but both expressions are rather awkward; 



10+ 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 25-27 



found therein in large quantities, separated, will cleanse 
her from her impurities. See Eze. xxii. 17 ff. ; Mai. 
hi. 2 f . 

26. Then, he says, abandoning the figure, will I restore 
thee judges (lit. restore thy judges), not, however, the pres- 
ent unfaithful ones brought back to integrity, but new 
ones taken from the number of those found worthy to 
be spared when the rest of the nation are destroyed ; 
as at first, in the good old times, when, under David and 
Solomon, righteousness dwelt in the city (2 Sam. iv. 
5 fT. ; 1 Kgs. hi. 16 ff.). Comp. ix. 5/6 f. and xi. iff., 
where the king takes the place of these judges. There- 
after, when the new order of things shall have been 
established, he adds, thou shalt be called, because she is, 
the above all others righteous city. The prophecy 
might have ended with a faithful town,* and it would, 
perhaps, have so ended had Isaiah's object been to com- 
fort the righteous. Since, however, he evidently had 
the opposite class in mind, it is natural that he should 
have supplemented the statement just made by a last 
warning. 

27. He commences by repeating the promise of the 
last verse, Zion shall be redeemed. By what means ? 
The answer is, justice. But this is ambiguous. Does 

and to the latter there is the added objection that it is doubtful if "Q, which 
is sometimes so rendered in Job ix. 30, is an equivalent of IVD, alkali. It 
is therefore probable that the reading proposed by Durell, and adopted by 
Lowth, "CS, for "1122, is the correct one. Duhm's conjecture, "]sni!X 
""Q, I will purge thee with alkali, is less natural, and, therefore, less 
satisfactory. 

* Duhm insists that it did; so also Cheyne (IBI) ; but, if this had been 
the case, would the editor have added the following verses? See Hack- 
mann, ZJ, 



1. 27, 28] 



COMMENTS. 



105 



he mean the divine justice as displayed in the destruc- 
tion of the wicked, or the human justice which is to 
characterize the judges of the Jerusalem of the future ? 
In favor of the former view are such passages as iv. 4, 
v. 16, and xxviii. 17 (Delitzsch). It must also be ad- 
mitted, that in v. 25 Isaiah represents a display of the 
divine justice as necessary to the purification, and thus 
indirectly to the preservation, of the city. The second 
interpretation is supported by the following considera- 
tions : the act of deliverance is one implying in the 
asrent an emotion for which a reason in the character 
of the person or persons delivered is naturally sought 
(comp. v. 25) : in v. 26 righteousness is the chief charac- 
teristic of the Zion of the future : finally, this verse was 
evidently intended to be taken as in antithesis with 
v. 28 ; but the figure requires that it shall be the right- 
eous who are delivered, as it is the wicked who are 
destroyed. On the whole, then, it seems best to inter- 
pret the justice in question as the justice of Zion, par- 
ticularly of her rulers, and the righteousness as the 
righteousness of them that dwell therein,* the inhabit- 
ants in general. Comp. Delitzsch. 

2S. In the strongest contrast with the deliverance of 
the righteous is the common destruction of the revolters, 
the ungrateful children of v. 2, and the sinners, the 

* !T2*£" (Doderlein). The text has iTptP; which, if it be retained, 
may be taken either figuratively or literally. In the former case it would 
mean her peniteiits, the converts of the English version. See lix. 20. 
Taken in the latter sense, it would not necessarily mean those released 
from captivity in a foreign country, but might denote such as had been 
temporarily driven from their homes by the convulsions in which the wicked 
were destroyed. The Septuagint read rPSU?, her captivity ; see also the 
Peshita and Luther; comp. the Vulgate. 



106 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 28, 29 



erring nation of v. 4. In the latter verse occurs the 
original of they that forsake Jehovah.* 

29. For, continues the prophet ; and one inquires what 
he can mean by saying that the apostates shall perish 
because they shall be ashamed, f The difficulty disap- 
pears when one remembers how Isaiah elsewhere em- 
ploys his references to idolatry : for there can be no 
doubt that the oaks here mentioned stand for trees of 
the larger sort, which are still reverenced in Palestine 
(Thomson, LB, II. 222), and which, like the gardens 
(lxv. 3 ; lxvi. 1 7), in ancient times furnished desirable 
places for the practice of idolatry (Jer. ii. 20 ; Eze. vi. 
13). % The passages that bear on this point are ii. 18 £f. 
and xvii. 7 f . In both of them Isaiah represents idols 
as the supposed protectors of their owners. In the 
former the futility of confidence in them is vividly por- 
trayed. The unfortunate objects of Jehovah's indigna- 
tion, finding their costliest images only a burden, hurl 
them "to the moles and the bats." The situation is the 
same in the present instance. In the preceding verse 
those who have been disloyal to Jehovah are threatened 
with destruction ; and now, lest they should delude them- 
selves with the idea that, in their extremity, they can 
take refuge with the false divinities which they have 

* Cheyne (IBI) pronounces vv. 27 f. ungenuine; but, if the above 
interpretation is correct, their genuineness seems established. 

f The text has W^, they shall be ashamed, changing the person in the 
next verb. This would sound strange in English. It is best, therefore, 
either, with the Septuagint, to carry the third person through this and the 
following verses, or, with the Targum, to use the second from the beginning. 
See Ges. § 144, 4, b, R. 3. 

X For an exhaustive discussion of the subject of sacred trees among the 
Hebrews, see Baudissin, SSR, II. 223 ff. 



1. 29-31] 



COMMENTS. 



107 



associated with the true God, he tells them that they will 
be confounded, disappointed. 

30. He insists, therefore, on his direful forecast. The 
second for brings him back to it ; but, instead of repeat- 
ing it in the form in which it was originally presented, 
he clothes it in figures suggested by his reference to the 
sacred trees and gardens to which his countrymen were 
devoted. He tells them that, as a result of the coming 
catastrophe, they will be like one of these trees, e.g., a 
terebinth, the pistacia terebinthus or turpentine tree.* 
It grows to a large size, like the oak, which, at a dis- 
tance, it much resembles. It is now comparatively rare 
west of the Jordan, but in the country once occupied by 
the Moabites and the Ammonites fine specimens are still 
abundant. See Tristram, NHB, 400 f. It is such a 
tree, with withered foliage, when its leaves are dry and 
ready to fall, e.g., at the end of the year, or better, as 
the effect of drought or decay, which they are to re- 
semble ; or a garden that hath no water. No rain falls 
in Palestine from May until October. Irrigation is 
therefore a necessity. If for any reason it is neglected, 
everything withers. It was so in Isaiah's time. His 
readers had seen their own crops, and even the sacred 
plantations, ruined by drought, and they appreciated this 
figure. See xvii. 10. 

31. A tree with sapless leaves readily takes fire. So, 
says Isaiah, the strong one, who oak-like (Am. ii. 9) over- 
tops his fellows, but has separated himself from the 
only source of life and blessing (Ps. i. 3). He shall be 
tow, tinder, and his work, not his idol (Orelli), but the 

* On the meaning of rbx and the related words, see Baudissin, SSJ?, 
II. 185, n. 



108 



ISAIAH. 



[I. 31-II. 1 



violence that he has wrought,* a spark, the means of 
his destruction. It is the old, familiar truth, abundantly 
illustrated in human experience, that sin is suicidal (Prv. 
viii. 36). And there is none to quench them, because 
they have forsaken the only one who could help them. 

This was about 720 B.C. It was twenty years, more 
or less, before the threatened chastisement was inflicted ; 
but, when it came, it was thorough enough to satisfy 
even Isaiah's sense of justice. 

The first chapter is followed by a series of eleven, 
which there are good reasons for grouping together. 
Thus, as has already (Intr. Stud. III.) been noticed, 
the first is introduced by a title, and the last furnishes 
a fitting conclusion. A second reason is that, although 
the prophecies of this series are of various dates, they 
are mostly the earlier utterances of Isaiah, and there 
are few of the same period found elsewhere in the col- 
lection. Finally, these chapters are connected by a 
thought which seems to pervade them as it does not the 
remaining prophecies of Isaiah, or his editor. It is not 
fully expressed in 

The Title (ii. 1). 

This, like i. 1, leads one to expect things revealed to 
Isaiah, — when, the reader is not informed, — concern- 
ing Judah and Jerusalem only ; whereas the book con- 

* The Masoretes mistook pDHH, the strong for an epithet of idols, and 
therefore probably intended that should be taken as a participle, its 

maker. Comp. Ew. § 60, b. Lagarde, going farther in the same direction, 
substitutes JEm, the sun-pillar, for flDm, and "hv2, his baal, for lbttS- 



n. Zj 2 ] 



COMMENTS. 



109 



tains much of importance bearing on the destiny of the 1 
kingdom of Israel. The discrepancy can be explained 
in this, as in the preceding instance, by supposing the 
phraseology chosen to be meant to indicate merely the 
most prominent topic treated.* The book as a whole 
may be said to have for its general subject 

A. THE FUTURE OF GOD'S PEOPLE (ii. 2-xii. 6). 

The phrase God's people is capable of two inter- 
pretations. It may mean, either the people graciously 
selected to receive peculiar manifestations of the divine 
favor, or that part of this people that realizes the divine 
purpose in making such manifestations. The subject 
is treated in both of these aspects. The first chapters 
are chiefly devoted to 

l. The Disloyal Mass (ii. 2-vi. 13): 

the sins by which it is defiled, and the judgments by 
which it is to be purified. This topic is presented three 
times in three different ways. In the first place, there 
are three chapters which may be grouped under the 
heading, 

a. THE IDEAL AND ITS REALIZATION (ii. 2-iv. 6). 

The first paragraph introduces this ideal, viz. 

(l) A Universal Shrine (ii. 2-4). — 2. It begins with a 
very familiar idiom, And it shall come to pass, which 

* It is probable that the title belonged to the original collection, or some 
part of it, but, in view of the order of the words Judah and Jerusalem^ 
not probable that it originated with Isaiah. Comp. Hitzig. 



110 



ISAIAH. 



would naturally connect what follows with something 
preceding. It always elsewhere answers this purpose. 
See vii. 2 iff. In the present instance the title with 
which the chapter begins makes such a use of it im- 
possible. It is therefore evident that the passage which 
it here introduces must originally have stood in some 
other connection. This is generally conceded ; but 
there is wide difference of opinion on the question 
whence it was taken. There are those who think that 
it has simply been removed from its proper place in the 
writings of Isaiah (Duhm). Others, recalling the fact 
that the passage occurs almost literatim in Mic. iv. 1-3, 
assert that Isaiah here quotes Micah (Delitzsch).* To 
the latter view it is objected: (1) that, although the 
form in which the passage appears in the book of 
Micah is the more original, Jer. xxvi. 18 seems to teach 
that Mic. iii. 12, and therefore iv. 1 ff., belongs to the 
reign of Hezekiah, whereas Isa. ii. must be considerably 

* The following are the variations between the two versions : 



2. 


rrrr pa 


Mic. iv. 1. p33 . . . mr 






2. Kin wwi 










aw 


mo 


3. 








im 


irm 


4. 




3. D^nn D^y 






pirn -11? dtmb? d^ 2 ? 




amnnn 






Drrmrrorn 








WW 









COMMENTS. 



Ill 



earlier ; (2) that the relation of Mic. iv. 1 ff. to the con- 
text is not much closer than that of this passage to its 
present setting ; and (3) that — and this last objection 
militates against both of the views stated, and also 
against a third according to which both prophets bor- 
rowed from an earlier author, — although there are in 
this prophecy words and expressions that remind one 
of both Isaiah and Micah, the leading thought, the sub- 
mission of the surrounding nations to Jehovah, is not 
only foreign to both, but much later than either of 
them. It is therefore suggested that the passage is a 
post-Exilic addition to the text of Micah, whence it was 
finally borrowed for the purpose that it now serves, — 
to relieve the severity of the denunciations immediately 
following.* Who was the original author, it seems im- 
possible to determine.! Whoever he was, he had faith 
in the future of the Hebrew religion ; and, although 
when he wrote, it was doubtless in eclipse, he looked 
for its triumph, finally (lit. at the end of days), i.e., not 
at the end of time (A V), or of the Jewish dispensation 
(Henderson), but at the end of the current period (Hos. 
hi. 4f.). In that happier hereafter the mountain of 
Jehovah, \ the height on which the temple at Jerusalem 

* Lagarde's suggestion, that it once closed the first chapter, is unlikely, 
since v. 5 was evidently intended to connect it with what follows. 

f Hitzig attributed it to Joel ; and one may still do so without incon- 
sistency, if, unlike Hitzig, but like many modern critics, one place Joel 
among the latest of the prophets. See Cheyne, IB I, 12. 

\ The text has the mountain of the house of Jehovah, the Septuagint the 
mountain of the Lord (Jehovah), and the house of God. Duhm adopts the 
latter reading, only adding an our before God. It is very doubtful, how- 
ever, if he has gone far enough, although he seems to have taken the right 
direction ; for he is obliged to reckon the first clause of the verse as the 



112 



ISAIAH. 



[II. 2, 3 



stood, is to be established ; firmly placed, so that it can- 
not be robbed of its prominence, at the head, — not on 
the top (Vitringa) — of the mountains, overtopping all 
the rest. The phrase has been taken literally, as if the 
author expected that one day Zion would really become 
the highest of mountains, and Eze. xl. 2 and Zee. xiv. io 
have been quoted in favor of such an interpretation ; 
but Ps. xl. 3/2 and lxviii. 16/15 f. show that, to the 
Hebrew, the physical elevation of the site of the temple 
was not necessary to its preeminence as a sanctuary. It 
is better, therefore, to interpret the passage figuratively, 
supposing it to contain an allusion to the practice among 
the heathen of locating the homes of their gods on moun- 
tains (xiv. 13). Thus the meaning would be that, in the 
days to come, the fame of Jehovah will become so great 
as to eclipse that of all other divinities, and attract uni- 
versal attention. Then shall all the nations — Micah, 
simply peoples — stream like a river, constantly and in 
great numbers, to it. The first sentence of v. 3 com- 
pletes the parallelism. 

3. The peoples are stimulated by one another to this 
pilgrimage to the house of the God of Jacob, hitherto the 
national God of Israel ; and they declare their purpose 
in making it. They go up to Jerusalem, not, primarily 
at least, to sacrifice or to perform any other religious 
rite, but that he may teach them, through his servants, 
of his ways ; a share of that which is to be learned there 

first line of a tetrastich, whereas the principle of parallelism and the analogy 
of xii. I, indicate that it should be regarded simply as an introduction to the 
poem proper. It is better to transpose the phrase and the house of our 
God with the one following, thus producing a perfectly symmetrical distich 
with a prose introduction. See the translation. 



H. 3, 4] 



COMMENTS. 



113 



concerning the ways in which he requires his worshippers 
to go, and in which they find security and happiness. 
Their purpose is a practical one : that they may walk in 
his paths, for introduces a reason given, not by the 
prophet (Delitzsch), in whose mouth such a statement 
would be comparatively tame, but by the pilgrims. See 
xlv. 14 f. The reason given is, that from Zion, as from 
no other shrine, goeth forth, like a stream from its 
source, instruction ; the direction for which one looks to 
the Deity, and which one finds in the word of Jehovah 
alone. Comp. Henry. This is a state of things that 
Isaiah cannot have foretold. He hoped for the salva- 
tion of the Hebrews and the restoration of the glory of 
the best period (i. 26; ix. 6/7; xi. 9), but not for the 
universal prevalence of the Hebrew religion. That idea 
was a later development. See xlii. 6 ; lvi. 1 ff . ; xix. 
i8ff.; etc. 

4. When men become thus eager to know God's will 
he will reveal it to them. He will judge between the 
nations ; through his inspired servants act as arbiter 
among them, and thus prevent them from resorting to 
violence and bloodshed. Then, having no further use 
for arms, they will beat their swords into mattocks,* the 
implements with which the vineyards especially were 
cultivated; and their spears, strictly, of course, spear- 
heads, into pruning knives. In a word, the instruments 

* This is the meaning given to DTlK by the Jewish, and some Christian, 
authorities. Others, following the versions, render it ploughshares (Nagels- 
bach); and still others coulters (Henderson). The former of these ren- 
derings seems forbidden by I Sam. xiii. 20 f.; to the latter there is the 
objection that the Hebrews do not seem to have used coulters. On the 
Syrian plough, see Van Lennep, BL t 75 f.; but especially ZDPV, IX. 24 ft. 



114 



ISAIAH. 



[II- 4, 5 



of war are to be transformed into the implements of 
peace : and that, not for a brief period, but once for all ; 
for men are not to learn war any more. Comp. Joel 
iv. io. 

In Mic. iv. I fT. the picture is more complete, for there 
the reader is informed that " they shall sit every one 
under his vine and under his fig-tree, and there shall be 
none to terrify." There, also, the prophecy has a 
formal conclusion in the words " for the mouth of Jeho- 
vah hath spoken." 

This is the way in which the one by whom the para- 
graph was inserted, sought to prepare the Jews of his 
time for the words of Isaiah, preserved in this and the 
two following chapters, concerning the Israel of the 
eighth century B.C. The words themselves he repro- 
duced because he felt that they contained a message to 
his own generation also, that 

(2) A Separation of the Unworthy (ii. 5~iv. i) — must 
still precede the realization of the hopes that he cher- 
ished for his people and their religion. They therefore 
have a twofold meaning. One must recognize both, 
always remembering, however, that the genuine words 
of Isaiah can have but one complete application, and 
that this can only be discovered by a study of the cir- 
cumstances under which they were first uttered. 

Turning now to the words themselves, one finds, to 
start with, a description of 

(a) A General Visitation (ii. 5-21), — involving terrible 
consequences to entire Palestine ; and, as the first topic 
under this general head, 

a. the curse of prosperity (ii. 5-i i). — 5. The first 



n. 5, 6] 



COMMENTS. 



115 



verse is evidently an editorial addition. It was suggested 
by Mic. iv. 5, and intended to connect the prophecy pre- 
ceding with the one that follows. Comp. Orelli. It is 
an exhortation addressed to the house of Jacob. This 
name, like Israel, is sometimes applied to Judah (Mic. 
iii. 13 f.); but since in vv. 3 and 6 it is probably to be 
regarded as equivalent to Israel in the broader sense, it 
is safest to give it the same interpretation in this connec- 
tion. See viii. 17; x. 20; xiv. 1. They are exhorted to 
walk in the light of Jehovah. In Mic. iv. 5 it is the 
name of Jehovah in which they are to walk. The 
thought, however, is one. They are to recognize Jeho- 
vah as their God and accept his will, the instruction by 
which v. 3 represents their neighbors as being desirous 
of profiting, as the law of their conduct (Prv. vi. 23). 
Comp. Nagelsbach. The same figure is elsewhere used 
of the helpful interposition of Jehovah (ix. 1/2; x. 17). 

6. The prophet begins abruptly. One would expect, 
after But (lit. for), something like, ye have deserted Jeho- 
vah, making a perfect antithesis with v. 5. That which 
actually follows is, thou hast cast off thy people, and then 
the reasons for their rejection. The strangeness of the 
order of thought has given rise to various conjectures 
involving a change in the text or its interpretation, none 
of which is satisfactory.* The difficulty yields in part if 
the preceding verses are for the time being ignored, and 

* Some, following Saadia, retain the present text, but interpret thou as 
addressed to the people, and thy people as meaning thy national character 
(Luzzatto). Others, with the Septuagint, change the text to 1X217 w"I2j, he 
hath cast off his people; Duhm with the addition of HIT, Jehovah. 
Finally, Lagarde suggests the substitution of n2w?»23, hath cast thee off, for 
Hr*Ci«2, thou hast cast off. 



116 



ISAIAH. 



[II. 6, 7 



it is removed entirely by supposing that they were sub- 
stituted for the original beginning of the prophecy, be- 
cause, the prophet continues, they were full of diviners.* 
The term is used in the Old Testament to include all 
who, by other means than the genuine prophetic gift, 
seek a knowledge of the future (Deu. xviii. io ; Mic. hi. 
7) ; but in a narrower sense it designates those who, like 
the famous witch of Endor (i Sam. xxviii. 8 ff.), have to 
do with spirits (viii. 19). The augurers (lit. beclouders), 
i.e., originally, rain-makers, were a species of diviners 
who professed to find hidden meanings in natural phe- 
nomena (Deu. xviii. 10, 14; 2 Kgs. xxi. 6). They also, 
in spite of the protests of the prophets, had multiplied 
to such an extent that the Hebrews were overrun with 
them, like the Philistines, who had no genuine prophets 
(1 Sam. vi. 2).f The remainder of the verse is difficult, 
but it ought to, and probably does, mean, and with sons 
of strangers, foreigners, including the diviners just men- 
tioned, they abounded ; doubtless as a result of the inti- 
mate relations that existed between the Hebrews and 
the neighboring peoples. 

7. Another result of increased intercourse with the 
outside world was a great increase in the wealth of the 

* The text has Dlptt, from the East, and this reading has the support 
of the versions ; but there are so many and serious objections to it that it 
is undoubtedly mistaken. The following are among the emendations that 
have been suggested: DDJ^^p, of divination (Brenz), DDpft, divination 
(Bottcher); QSpfe, divination from the East (Lowth) ; £Dp 

DIpD, divination from the East (Delitzsch) ; and LHpfo VSDp, diviners 
from the East (Duhm) ; but none of these is so satisfactory as ETftBp, 
diviners (Krochmal), with tTHV, augurers, in the same construction, as 
rhythmical and grammatical considerations alike would lead one to expect. 

f On divination among the Hebrews, see Smith, DB, art. divination ; 
Riehm, HBA, art. Wahrsager. 



II. 7, 8] 



COMMENTS. 



117 



country. It flowed into Judah from the East by way of 
Elath (2 Kgs. xvi. 6 ; 2 Chr. xxvi. 2). There is nothing 
to indicate the precise source of the prosperity of the 
Northern Kingdom, but the amount of the price paid 
by Menahem for the support of his Assyrian ally, a 
thousand talents of silver (2 Kgs. xv. 19), shows that 
his land also was full of silver and gold.* The further 
statement, that there was no end to their (lit. his f) treas- 
ures, is of course a harmless hyperbole. The abun- 
dance of horses and chariots also harmonizes, with what 
is known from the scanty records of the period. They 
were necessary to the military operations in which the 
rulers of both kingdoms were more or less constantly 
engaged (2 Kgs. xv. 37; 2 Chr. xxvii. 5 ff.). The 
prophet, true to the traditions of his people (Deu. xvii. 
16; Mic. v. 9/ 10), condemned them. They were a sign 
of lack of faith in Jehovah (Deu. xx. 1 ). 

8. There were less mistakable indications of disloy- 
alty. The land was full of idols (lit. nothings J), the 
lifeless, helpless, worthless gods of their neighbors. 
These false divinities always had a strange fascination 
for the Hebrews, and the tendency to stray after them 
was doubtless favored by the high-places, which even 
the good kings Uzziah and Jotham did not abolish (2 
Kgs. xv. 3f., 34 f.). According to the prophet the fact 
that these idols were the work of their hands made the 
worship of them ridiculous. 

* On the tense of the verb, see Ges. § in, 4 (2) a. 
f On the use of the singular for the plural in suffixes, see Ges. § 145, 
5, R. 

X In the original there is a play upon the word God, which cannot 
well be reproduced in English. 



US 



ISAIAH, 



PL g, 10 



9. What, now, is to be expected as the result of this 
vast accumulation of wealth, and this ceaseless multi- 
plication of idols ? It was doubtless the general opinion 
among those to whom the prophecy was addressed that 
the future was to be like the present, only much more 
abundant. The prophet sees otherwise. Therefore,* he 
concludes, shall man, j the creature, be humbled ; % pros- 
trated before his offended God. Comp. Henry. Indeed, 
he is so thoroughly convinced, not only of the certainty 
of their humiliation, but of the justice of it, that his 
prediction becomes a prayer : nor show them favor ! 
make their overthrow complete (xxii. 14). § 

10. Finally, as if addressing each of them individually, 
he cries : Go into the rock, i.e., the clefts in it, |] and hide 
thyself in the ground, i.e., the cisterns and other open- 
ings in the earth. Palestine abounds in such hiding- 
places. They have always been the refuge of its people 
when defeated or oppressed ( Jud. vi. 2 ; 1 Sam. xiii. 6). 
Comp. Kay. That from which they are to hide them- 
selves is the dreadful presence (lit. the face of terror) of 
Jehovah, when he comes to execute judgment upon his 
apostate people. The last words of the verse recur in 
w. 19 and 21 with the addition of, when he ariseth to 

* On this use of the waw consecutive, see Ges. § in, 3, b; Dri. § 82. 

t In Ps. xlix. 3/2 D"X and ETK are contrasted in the meanings low and 
high ; but here, as appears from the repetition of the thought in a more 
expanded form in v. II, the words are synonymous, denoting man as con- 
trasted with his Maker. Comp. Delitzsch. 

% On ntr, see Ges. § 67, R. 3. 

§ See Ges. § 109, 1, b, R. 2 ; Dri. § 57. The Septuagint seems to have 
read KTX DfcC, and I will not show favor. Comp. Duhm. 

|] Winckler, A U, 1 76, derives "1122 from 'TSES, be hidden, and renders 
it hiding-place. See Jer. xxxiii. 3. 



n. 10-12] 



COMMENTS. 



119 



terrify the earth. This verse doubtless originally ended 
in the same way. Perhaps the missing words w r ere 
dropped, when the parts of which the prophecy in its 
present form is composed were united, to prevent two 
refrains from coming together.* At any rate, the pres- 
ent text requires that the strophe should end with the 
next verse. 

11. This refrain, which recurs in a slightly different 
form in v. 17, | first repeats the thought of v. 9, and then 
places over against it the prediction, that Jehovah alone 
shall be exalted, recognized as transcending everything 
human, in that day, the day of Jehovah, the day of 
retribution. This closing phrase is a favorite one with 
Isaiah and the author of Zee. xii.-xiv. 

The refrain just quoted threatens the haughty sinners 
in Israel with humiliation. The strophe which follows 
is a description of the catastrophe. They are to be 
involved in 

(3. A GENERAL OVERTHROW {vV. \2-\J~). 12. The 

prophet announces that Jehovah hath a day, a fixed 
term beyond which what he purposes will not be post- 
poned, for everything that is high and lofty, including 
not only the persons who have offended him by their 
haughtiness, but even the inanimate objects by which 
they might be symbolized. Thus only can he adequately 

* The most satisfactory analysis of this chapter is that of Duhm, who 
has shown that it consists of four fragments : 1-5, 6-10, 1 1— 1 7, and 18-21, 
and that the second and fourth of these fragments belong to the same 
prophecy. Comp. FBrown, JBL, 1890, I. 86 f. 

t The form here found looks like the work of a careless copyist with 
v. 15 in mind. On the difficulties of the text, see Ges. §§146, I; 112, 
3 ; Dri. § 132 ; comp. Duhm. 



120 ISAIAH. [II. 12-15 

rebuke human presumption and manifest his own maj- 
esty. Comp. Barnes. Everything of the kind shall 
be abased. There follows a catalogue of objects that 
attract attention or admiration by their height. 

13. The first to be mentioned are the cedars of Leb- 
anon, the largest trees with which the Hebrews were 
acquainted (1 Kgs. iv. 33 ; Ps. xcii. 12). They were 
once abundant in the mountains of Lebanon, where 
Solomon had them cut for the wood-work of the temple 
at Jerusalem (1 Kgs. v. 6). Remnants of this ancient 
forest exist in various places. The best-known grove is 
the one near Bsherreh, northeast of Beirut. It consists 
of about three hundred and fifty trees, some of which 
are seventy-five or eighty feet in height, and from thirty 
to thirty-five feet in circumference. See Thomson, LB, 
III. 261 ff. With the cedars are associated the oaks of 
Bashan, noted for their strength as well as their height 
(Am. ii. 9 ). Tristram {NHB, 369) describes one growing 
at Libbeiyah, near Mt. Hermon, as thirty-seven feet in 
circumference, with foliage having a circumference of 
ninety-one yards. Trees of this sort abound throughout 
the region east of the Jordan. These giants are to be 
laid low, when the fury of Jehovah, like a tempest, 
sweeps over the land (Ps. xxix. 5). 

14. Even the mountains and the hills will tremble and 
dissolve before him (Jud. v. 5 ; Mic. i. 3 f . ; Nah. i. 5). 

15. But if these his own greatest works cannot endure 
his presence, how much less the strongest structures 
reared by man ! every high tower, such as Uzziah and 
Jotham built to protect their kingdom (2 Chr. xxvi. 9 f . ; 
xxvii. 4), must fall in ruins ; also every strong wall (2 
Chr. xxvii. 3). 



II. i6, 17] 



COMMENTS. 



121 



1 6. ships of Tarshish were large ships, built for long 
voyages, so called from Tarshish, or Tartessus, a large 
town or district in Spain outside the strait of Gibraltar, 
one of the remote places visited by Phoenician traders. 
Such ships were despatched from Elath, on the Red 
Sea, in the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham (2 Kgs. xiv. 22). 
Isaiah pictures them overtaken by the same tempest by 
which the land is to be devastated, and dismantled, if 
not entirely destroyed (Jon. i. 3 f.). With these ancient 
East-Indiamen are associated sources of delight whose 
identity it is difficult to discover. They are probably 
not the pennons (Gesenius) or other decorations (Vit- 
ringa) of the ships just mentioned ; the palaces of the 
rich (Targum) ; or commanding look-outs (Ewald) ; or 
precious objects in general (Knobel); but delightful 
figures, objects of art, including the statues of false 
deities, with which the rich adorned their houses and 
gardens.* The eighth verse says that the land was full 
of such objects. 

17. All this, however, is merely incidental to the real 
object of Jehovah; viz. that the loftiness of man, human 
pride in human power and possessions, shall be humbled, 
and he himself exalted. See v. 11. 

The prophecy might have ended here, and perhaps 
this third fragment was originally the conclusion of a 
discourse ; but it seemed best to the editor to whom it 
owes its preservation, that, as in the previous chapter, 

* This interpretation is based on the supposition that nV-lT, which does 
not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament, is either a synonym for riV2°w*E, 
which, in Num. xxxiii. 52, means sculptured stones, — the singular occurs 
in the same sense in Lev. xxvi. 1, — or, perhaps better, a scribal error for 
the longer form. 



122 



ISAIAH. 



[II. 18-20 



the worthlessness of the gods of the nations as refuges 
from the wrath of Jehovah should be exhibited. He 
therefore pieced together the remaining bits of the 
prophecy from which he took vv. 6-10, and thus pro- 
duced a final strophe on 

7. the useless idols (yv. 18-21). — 18. It . begins 
with a half-verse in which assonance is employed to 
assist the reader's imagination in realizing the disap- 
pearance of the false gods. Says the prophet : The 
idols, also, shall all fail ; pass away. 

19. Then follows the refrain, in a slightly changed 
form, of v. 10 : men (lit. they), stripped of their last 
hope, shall go into caves in the rocks and holes in the 
ground, to hide themselves from Jehovah. These words 
once marked the end of a strophe, but they can hardly 
be intended so to do in this connection ; for v. 20 con- 
tinues the subject of the idols as if nothing had inter- 
vened. 

20. Isaiah, or better, perhaps, the editor, now ex- 
plains what is to become of the idols. A man will cast 
his idols of silver and ... of gold ; those which, on ac- 
count of their intrinsic value, he will cling to as long as 
possible; and which he hath made for himself,* — see 
v. 8, — to the moles f and the bats, to which the abodes 
of men will be left by their terrified tenants. Comp. 
Delitzsch. 

* Hitzig explains lt£?i? as a plural, indicating that the production of an 
idol requires a number of workmen (xli. 7). Lagarde reads it lul?. The 
form found in the text, like TniY^, v. 8, however, seems sufficiently ex- 
plained by the freedom of Hebrew writers in their treatment of collectives. 
See Ges. § 145, 5, R. 

f The two forms fTHS ISfb are to be read as one word, n'T-Sl? 
from "ISP!, dig. 



II. 21, 22] 



COMMENTS. 



123 



21. The idols are left behind, that their owners may 
the more quickly go into the rents of the rocks and 
. . . the clefts of the cliffs, says Isaiah, again resorting 
to assonance to produce a third form of the now famil- 
iar refrain, with which the strophe and the prophecy 
close. 

In the second of the group of the prophecies now 
under examination the prophet sets forth in greater 
detail 

(b) The Portion of Judah (ii. 22-iv. i) — in the 
retribution which he sees approaching. He gives his 
first attention to 

a. THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY (H. 22-tii. 7). 22. The 

section opens with a warning, which, as the text is now 
arranged, closes the second chapter, but which, if it is 
to be retained,* should begin the third. Trust no longer, 
it says, in man that breatheth (lit. man in whose nose is 
breatJi). The last phrase is usually interpreted as a 
reason why man is not to be relied upon (Hitzig); but 
this interpretation is surely mistaken. The breath, ac- 
cording to the Hebrews, was the equivalent of life : 
when Jehovah breathed into the first man's nostrils the 
result was a living being (Gen. ii. 7). Accordingly, in 
such passages as Deu. xx. 16, " every breath " is every 
living thing, and in Gen. vii. 22, the phrase, "all in 
whose nostrils is the breath of the spirit of life," has 
the same meaning. In whose nose is breath, therefore, 
must mean, as it is rendered above, that breatheth, i.e., 

* The reasons for suspecting its genuineness are: (i) that it has no 
connection with what precedes, and little with what follows ; and (2) that 
it does not appear in the Septuagint. Comp. Dillmann. 



124 



ISAIAH. 



[II. 22-111. 2 



lives ; and the sentence should be understood as a 
warning against putting one's confidence in any human 
being. The reason follows. It is not that he breathes, 
but that, although he breathes, he is powerless against 
Him, the breath of whose nostrils lays bare the founda- 
tions of the world (Ps. xviii. 16/15). This is the force 
of the question, what is he to be accounted ? Comp. 
Skinner. 

iii. 1. Such a warning clearly has nothing to do with 
the subject of idols ; nor can it be said to be a suitable 
introduction to the prediction that follows, since this 
latter implies a very different attitude toward human 
supports. The author warns the Jews, not that they 
are not to lean on anything human, but that they are 
to be deprived of every staff * of this sort on which they 
have hitherto naturally leaned. It is evident, therefore, 
that although, as above suggested, one of the passages 
was intended to introduce the other, the second only 
can be attributed to Isaiah. The remainder of this 
verse, also, must be pronounced ungenuine, because it 
disturbs the evident thought of the prophet with its 
staff of bread and staff of water, material instead of 
personal supports. It is without doubt a mistaken 
comment on the text suggested by some such passage 
as Lev. xxvi. 26. Comp. Kay. 

2. The pillars of Jewish society are now enumerated. 
By the hero and soldier are meant the champion or 
leader in war (1 Sam. xvii. 21 ; 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 ff.) and 
his less renowned follower (Eze. xxxix. 20). To them, 
together with the captain (lit. of fifty), or simple officer 
(2 Kgs. i. 9 ff.), of the next verse, was confided the de- 

* On the construction see Ges. § 122, 4, c, R. 



HI. 2, 3] 



COMMENTS. 



125 



fence of the country against its enemies. On the judge 
and the elder rested the duty of protecting the people 
against one another. The prophet and the diviner are 
coupled together, not because in Isaiah's eyes they were 
alike worthy or unworthy of confidence, but because 
they were actually depended upon to supply a recog- 
nized need in his time. Comp. Mic. iii. 6 f.* 

3. The favorite on whose hand the king leaned 
(2 Kgs. v. 1, 18), and the counsellor, on whose advice 
he depended (i. 26; 2 Sam. xv. 23), of course, could 
not be omitted ; nor, in view of their recognized impor- 
tance in the community, the magician (lit. wise in arts) f 
and the conjurer (lit. skilled in whispering). To them 
the people resorted for spells, potions, amulets, and 
countless other inventions of ancient superstition (v. 20). 
How these various classes of society are to be removed, 
Isaiah does not here intimate. If he included in the 
term prophet genuine messengers of Jehovah, he proba- 
bly expected that they would cease to be sent (Am. viii. 
1 1 f .). The rest would be killed or carried into captiv- 
ity by enemies to be commissioned against them. In 
cases of deportation it was always the upper classes 
that suffered (2 Kgs. xxiv. 14 ff.). 

* It is useless, with Rosenmiiller, to try to fasten upon DDp any other 
meaning than that of diviner ; nor, although the omission of the priest is 
surprising, is there really any good ground for supposing, with Breden- 
kamp, that this word is a scribal error for jrO. 

t These words have often been interpreted as meaning the artisan, and 
this interpretation has the support of the ancient versions; but (i) the appli- 
cation of the Syriac word corresponding to C'H'in to magic, (2) the appear- 
ance of the conjurer in the next phrase, and (3) the omission of any fur- 
ther reference to the trades practised at the time, make it more probable 
that the arts here meant are the arts of the magician. Comp. Delitzsch. 



126 



ISAIAH. 



[III. 4-6 



4. The removal of those who have knowledge of 
affairs civil and military will leave the country at the 
mercy of boys, if not in years, at least in experience 
and disposition. Having no character, they will use 
their power or authority for the execution of their ca- 
prices. Thus the people will become the sport of their 
rulers.* This is not, as has been supposed (Delitzsch), 
a picture of the reign of Ahaz. That ruler was, indeed, 
a comparatively young man when he came to the throne 
(2 Kgs. xvi. 2), and he may, like Rehoboam (1 Kgs. 
xii. 8), have chosen young men for his advisers; but 
it is certain that he did not commence his reign under 
any such circumstances as are here described, and the 
completion of the picture will only make this fact more 
apparent. Yet the date of the prophecy is probably 
not later than the accession of this king. 

5. The prophet proceeds with his disheartening de- 
scription. The example of the princes will be followed 
by the people. They will be harassed, one by another, 
might having become the only standard of justice. The 
natural claims of age and merit will no longer be re- 
spected : they will assail, the boy the elder, and the 
base the honorable. To such lengths will the lower 
classes go, when the restraints of government are re- 
moved, and their baser natures allowed to assert them- 
selves. 

6. When matters have come to this pass there will 
surely be an effort to mend them. Anarchy finally 

* Duhm translates this sentence: abuses shall rule over them; and 
Orelli : childish pranks shall rule over them. The rendering above adopted 
is not so exact, but it will probably be found exact enough, and much more 
intelligible than those cited. 



COMMENTS. 



127 



becomes intolerable even to anarchists. This longing: 
for order will manifest itself when one layeth hold of 
another, with eager, desperate violence, in the house 
of his father, the ancestral dwelling in which he 'has 
taken refuge. It is probably the intention of the 
prophet to represent the person sought as a survivor 
of the better class of citizens. Therefore his visitor is 
made to say : Thou hast a mantle, the outer garment 
which, under ordinary circumstances every one was 
supposed to possess (Ex. xxii. 26), thereby implying 
that, at this time, the possession of one constitutes a 
distinction qualifying its owner to be a ruler over his 

1 „ o 

fellows ; let this ruin, this lawless condition of things, 
be under thy control. 

7. The appeal will be in vain. The unfortunate 
patrician will cry (lit. lift up), protest, I will not be a 
surgeon, to bind up the wounds of the State. The 
figure is changed, but the change is not so surprising 
as it would have been had this second one not already 
(i. 6) been used by Isaiah. Comp. Reuss. Then he 
will give the reason for his refusal : in my house is 
neither bread nor mantle ; I am as poor as the poorest 
of you. The force of the reason given becomes appar- 
ent, when one remembers that the ruler of Isaiah's day 
was expected, not only to perform his duties for noth- 
ing, but to be generous toward those over whom he 
exercised authority. This confession of poverty is 
therefore naturally followed by a repetition of the re- 
fusal to be a ruler of the people. The place offered is 
not that of king (Duhm), for the throne is not vacant 
(v. 4), but of one of the local magnates to whom the 
preservation of order was committed. 



128 



ISAIAH. 



[III. 8, g 



A penalty so severe as that just described requires 
justification. The prophet, therefore, in the next fol- 
lowing verses, portrays 

/5. the defiant rebels (vv. 8-i 5) — whose offences 
have made such severity necessary. 8. He resumes the 
figure used in v. 6. He declares that his city and coun- 
try, like a breached wall, shall totter and . . . fall 
(Am. v. 2); because the inhabitants, especially the rul- 
ing classes, with their tongues, in such speeches as 
those quoted v. 19 and xxviii. 9 f. and 15, and their 
deeds, soon to be more fully described (vv. 13 f.), are 
against * Jehovah, rebelling | to his glorious face (lit. 
eyes%)\ i.e., persisting in sin even while he is manifest- 
ing himself in their personal or national history, as their 
fathers did before them (Ex. xxxii. 1 ff.). 

9. They make no secret of their opposition to their 
God. The look on their faces, § the involuntary expres- 
sion of their countenances, .testifieth against them ; 
betrays the attitude of their hearts. One has not, 
however, to depend upon such evidence ; their sin, like 
the Sodomites, whose attack upon Lot and his guests 
was a popular demonstration (Gen. xix. 4 ff.), they pub- 
lish ; practise unblushingly in the eyes of God and 

* For b& read bl). 

t nnsb for nruarta On the form, see Ges. § 53, 3, R. 7; on the con- 
struction, § 114, 2, R. 4. 

X For "OH read TU, with many manuscripts and editions. Comp. the 
Septuagint. 

§ This is the rendering that best suits the connection. The examina- 
tion of their faces (Nagelsbach) is less natural; and their partiality (Tar- 
gum), although the idiom D^DB seems to favor it, is awkward and 
irrelevant. The only other interpretation that deserves notice is that 
according to which fTOn is a derivative, not of 133, but of ""OH, and means, 
as Job xix. 3 would indicate, impudence (Vitringa). 



III. 9-12] 



COMMENTS. 



129 



man. In all this they think that they are furthering 
their own interests, but they are mistaken ; they shall 
do themselves injury. 

10. The words just quoted present one side of the 
doctrine of retribution. This doctrine is now more fully 
stated : Blessed * is the righteous ! it declares, for the 
fruit of his righteous deeds he shall eat. 

11. Of the godless, on the other hand, it asserts just 
as positively, that what his hands have wrought shall be 
repaid him. There does not seem to be any material 
divergence between this general, and the previous (v. 9) 
particular, statement, yet it is not probable that Isaiah 
is the author of both of them. It is not his habit to 
check the torrent of his discourse to introduce unneces- 
sary reflections. I 

12. From the future of the rulers Isaiah returns to the 
present of the people ; my people he calls them, giving 
a touch of tenderness to this otherwise severe discourse. 
To their rulers he gives the title masters, thus recalling 
the bitterest period of their history as a people (Ex. 
iii. 7). These masters are children 4 In v. 4 the con- 
trol of the Jews and their affairs by boys is yet future ; 
here it is represented as already in the hands of such 

* for Tl&K, say. 

f The style of vv. 10 f., too, unless the text is corrupt, betrays the hand 
of an editor. A ''ID, for, should be supplied before ill, and a *h, to him^ 
after both it and 2112, well. 

% The Hebrew word is singular. Some have therefore concluded that 
VtW3 is a pluralis majestatis and rendered it his governor, i.e., his king, 
(Cheyne). The context, remote (v. 4) as well as immediate, requires that 
the latter word should be regarded as referring to a class, and that the 
former should be explained, either as a collective (Bottcher), a distributive 
(Delitzsch), or a mistake for the plural, perhaps D^vll?. Comp. the 
Septuagint. 



130 



ISAIAH. 



[III. 12-14 



persons. There is some reason, therefore, for interpret- 
ing this passage as referring to the reign of Ahaz ; and 
this interpretation seems favored by the mention of 
women as influential in affairs. When, however, one 
remembers that, for the state of things here described, 
the elders and princes are to be called to account (v. 14), 
this fact appears to indicate that Isaiah is now speak- 
ing figuratively, meaning that his people were already 
governed with as much caprice and wantonness as if 
their rulers were actually boys or women. The prophet 
proceeds, addressing himself to the people, and charg- 
ing, that their leaders, those by whom they would natu- 
rally expect, when wrong, to be set right (i. 17), are 
seducers, and that, when they do not actually tempt 
others from the right way, they efface it ; make it impos- 
sible to find or to follow (v. 20). Comp. Nagelsbach. 
In other words, he tells them that their rulers have 
demoralized them. 

13. This condition of things is intolerable. Isaiah so 
confidently expects Jehovah to intervene that, to him, 
he already is arisen to defend the afflicted, and standeth 
ready to avenge his people* of their oppressors. 

14. Jehovah himself will enter into a contest with the 
elders and princes, and this will be his charge against 
them : And ye, whom I have set over it, to guard and 
cultivate it (Ps. ii. 6), have cropped the vineyard ; f 
ravaged the people as goats do a vineyard, when it is 

* The text has D^EI?, peoples ; but the plural is unintelligible in the con- 
nection. The original reading must have been MSO f his people, which is 
required by vv. 12 and 15, and supported by the Septuagint and the 
Peshita. Comp. Alexander. On the meaning of 'fl, see Gen. xxx. 6; Ps. 
liv. 3/1 ; etc. 

f The Septuagint has my vineyard. 



III. 14-16] 



COMMENTS. 



131 



exposed to them (v. 5). Lest the figure should be mis- 
understood, he adds, the spoil of the afflicted is in your 
houses (Am. iii. 10). 

15. The indignation of Jehovah grows as he proceeds. 
Wherefore (lit. What to you )*, he demands, crush ye my 
people ? Here, again, the people of Jehovah, as appears 
from the next clause, are the lowly. The rulers, by 
their conduct, have forfeited their claim to be reckoned 
among his chosen. The intensity of their cruelty is 
expressed by the statement that they bruise (lit. grind) 
the faces of the afflicted ; by their cruelty produce the 
keenest grief in the hearts, and thus the utmost distor- 
tion in the faces, of their victims. Comp. Am. ii. 7. 
The verse — and the paragraph — closes without any 
indication of the way in which these heartless offenders 
are to be punished ; but the solemn formula, saith the 
Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, leads one to expect the worst. 

One striking parallel to the prophecies of Amos has 
already been discovered (i. 10 ff.). The attack of Isaiah 
upon 

7. the wanton women (iii. 16-iv. i) — of Jerusalem 
furnishes a second equally unmistakable. See Am. iv. 
1 ff. 16. It begins with And Jehovah said, a form of 
expression which indicates that the words following are 
a separate discourse, rather than a part of the one to 
which the rest of the chapter belongs. The changed 
tone at once discernible points in the same direction. 
Yet it is probable that both prophecies belong to the 
same period, and that the earliest ; since the luxury here 
described tallies best with the prosperity of Judah under 

* On the form ttbfc, see Ges. § 20, 2, a, R. 1 ; § 37, 1, R. 



132 



ISAIAH. 



[III. 16, 17 



Uzziah and Jotham. the daughters of Zion are literal, 
and not figurative, women ; and it seems strange that 
any modern exegete should have held the contrary opin- 
ion (Eichhorn), or tried to unite the two (Kay). They 
are haughty, and therefore hateful to Jehovah (ii. 12 ff.); 
and go with stretched * necks, or high heads, and blink- 
ing j eyes, casting coquettish or immodest glances right 
and left ; a practice utterly at variance with the oriental 
custom, which required, and still requires, ladies to con- 
ceal their faces in public. See Gen. xxiv. 65 ; Van 
Lennep, BL, 537 f. They go trippingly, % taking dainty 
steps, and jingle § with their feet, || or rather with the 
ornaments that they wear on their ankles. See vv. 18 
and 20. 

17. But the Lord will punish their wantonness, bring 
baldness H upon their crowns ; give them occasion to 
shave their heads in sign of mourning ; and lay their 
temples ** bare of the hair in which they delight as one 
of their dearest ornaments (v. 24). 

There follows a long catalogue of the things of which 
the women of Zion are to be deprived, when the day of 

* On DlllM, see Ges. §§ 75, R. 5; 128, 3. 
f A few codices have m~lpt£?ft, deceiving. See Lowth. 
% On the construction, see Ges. § 113, 3, R. 2. 
§ On PUMttn, see Ges. § 52, 2, R. 2. 
|| On nrrbsi, see Ges. § 135, 5, R. 1. 
For hfittf the Septuagint and the Peshita seem to have read hsW, 
humble. 

** The text has |MnS, generally rendered shame ; but, since a parallel for 
the crowns of the preceding sentence seems needed, and the word flXS, 
side, temple, furnishes such a parallel, the form found in the text should 
probably be pointed fliriS, and explained as a contraction for fnritfS or an 
error for [fiKS. See Stade, ZA IV, 1886,336; also the versions, especially 
the Vulgate. On the form of the suffix, see Ges. § 91, 1, R. 2. 



III. 17-21] 



COMMENTS. 



133 



the Lord's vengeance shall have come. This catalogue, 
vv. 18-23, although it is introduced by an expression 
suggested by v. 1, is not the work of Isaiah; for it 
diverges from the plan of vv. 17 and 24, and detains one 
with details such as this prophet habitually omitted. It 
is only interesting from the archaeological standpoint.* 

18. The anklets were metal bands, such as are still 
worn in Palestine, corresponding to the bracelets for the 
arms. To them were attached the chains of v. 20. 
The sunlets (Delitzsch, frontlets) were bright balls, and 
the moonlets little crescents, hung about the neck. The 
latter were among the spoils taken from the Midianites 
by Gideon (Jud. viii. 21, 26). 

19. ear-drops, also, were among the ornaments of the 
Midianites (Jud. viii. 26). The bracelets were in the 
form of chains. The veils were light and gauzy, not 
the ordinary covering for the head. 

20. The ornaments called head-dresses are elsewhere 
represented as worn by men (Ex. xxxix. 28 ; Isa. lxi. 3). 
The step-chains attached the feet one to the other and 
necessitated a mincing gait such as is described in v. 16. 
sashes, according to Jer. ii. 32, were a part of the outfit 
of a bride. See also Isa. xlix. 18. The smelling-bottles 
were doubtless attached to the girdle, as among the 
Arabs. The amulets were ornaments, usually with a 
magical inscription, which were supposed at the same 
time to protect the wearers against various sorts of evil 
influences. See Smith, DB, art. Amulets. 

21. finger-rings were worn by the Hebrews, as by 

* The most complete treatment of this passage is found in Schroder's 
Commentarius de vestitu mtdierum Hebrceanim, Leyden, 1745. The 
arrangement of it is discussed at length by Peters, JBL, 1885, 88 f. 



134 



ISAIAH. 



[III. 21-24 



other orientals, of both sexes (Ex. xxxv. 22). The 
custom still prevails in Palestine ; so, also, that of wear- 
ing nose-rings (Gen. xxiv. 47). These latter, however, 
are worn only by women. Sometimes studs are substi- 
tuted for rings, probably because they are more con- 
venient. See Van Lennep, BL, 531. 

22. The gala-robes of this passage are the rich attire, 
or better, holiday garments, of Zee. hi. 4 ; the stoles, the 
long garments, reaching from the neck tc the feet, worn 
over the tunic by both sexes. It was one of the shawls 
here mentioned in which Ruth received the present of 
grain given her by Boaz (Ru. hi. 15); and it took two 
purses such as these women carried to hold the money 
out of which Gehazi swindled Naaman (2 Kgs. v. 23). 

23. The mirrors (Lowth : transparent robes) of the 
time, like the writing-tablets (viii. 1), were plates of 
metal. The former, however, of course, were brightly 
polished. They were worn at the girdle. The garments 
called shirts were worn next to the skin by men as well 
as women. They are the linen garments of Jud. xiv. 
12 f. turbans, also, were worn by both sexes and all 
classes (Job xxix. 14). Finally, the mantles were ample 
wraps similar to those with which the women of Pal- 
estine still entirely envelop themselves, when they 
go abroad. It was doubtless a garment of this kind, 
although it is called by another name, with which 
Rebecca covered herself when she was presented to 
her future husband (Gen. xxiv. 65 ; see also xxix. 25). 

24. Isaiah, again permitted to speak, at once reveals 
his identity by plunging into a series of antitheses : 
perfume, spices and their odors, and putridity, disease 
and its stenches ; girdle, a work of the embroiderer's 



III. 24-26] 



COMMENTS. 



135 



art (Prv. xxxi. 24), and rope, any bit long enough to 
hold together the rags with which they are clothed ; 
hair-work,* heads of elaborately dressed hair, and bald- 
ness, as a sign of mourning (Mic. i. 16); mantle, a fine, 
full garment, and strip of hair-cloth, also a sign of 
mourning (Am. viii. 10); finally, in the inverse order, 
brand, the mark burned into the flesh of slaves and 
captives, and their lost beauty, f 

25. The flow of the prophet's thought is again inter- 
rupted ; this time by an explanation in which the 
daughter, and not the daughters, of Zion, is the 
object of the author's attention. At first she is directly 
addressed : Thy men, the adult males, as is at once 
explained, even thy mighty, the heroes of v. 1, shall 
fall ... in war. The definiteness of this statement is 
noticeable. 

26. The announcement that follows is equally unam- 
biguous, her doors shall sigh and mourn, for those who 
no longer go in and out of them ; yea, she shall sit on 
the ground, like a queen degraded from her throne 
(xlvii. 1), despoiled. It means nothing less than the 
destruction of Jerusalem. But Isaiah, whatever he may 
have thought, has thus far stopped short of such 
a prediction. Moreover, the form of expression used 
reminds one of the second, rather than the first, Isaiah. 
See xlvii. 1 ; lii. 2. These two considerations confirm 
the suspicion excited by the change of subject, that 
both verses are additions to the genuine text. They 

* On the construction, see Ges. § 131, 2, a. 

t This clause, besides inverting the order of the others, adds an odd line 
to the verse. These, perhaps, are the reasons — he states none — why 
Duhm rejects it. Comp. FBrown, /Z?Z, 1890, I. 90. 



136 



ISAIAH. 



[III. 26-IV. 1 



were probably intended by their author, who looked 
back upon the fall of Jerusalem, to bring out more 
clearly what, in the light of that event, was supposed 
to be the real meaning of the earlier prophet. 

iv. 1. The natural, and, therefore, doubtless the origi- 
nal, continuation of v. 24, is found in the statement that 
the time is to come when there will be seven, or as a 
modern would say, a dozen (comp. Zee. viii. 23), women 
to one man ; so many of the males of Judah will have 
been cut off : and the former will lay hold of the latter, 
forgetting the proprieties in such matters in their eager- 
ness for husbands. The custom which required, and 
still requires, the husband to purchase his wife (Ex. xxii. 
16; 1 Sam. xviii. 22 ff. ; Deu. xxii. 28 f. ; Van Lennep, 
BL, 539 ff.), is also to be reversed, women agreeing 
even to provide their own bread and . . . raiment. The 
reason for their eagerness appears in the entreaty, take 
away our reproach ! the reproach, keenly felt among 
the Hebrews of all periods, of being single, and there- 
fore childless. For pathetic illustrations of this senti- 
ment, see Gen. xxxviii. 14 and Jud. xi. 37 f . : comp. 
Duhm. 

The case even of Judah seems hopeless. Those who 
are not themselves corrupt and violent are in the hands 
of those who are, and there is apparently no salvation 
for the nation. Still, it can hardly be that Isaiah in- 
tended to leave the impression that it was to be utterly 
destroyed. The tenderness for the lowly and the afflicted, 
which has several times shown itself (iii. 12, 14), warrants 
one in believing that he must have had hopes for them. 
However that may be, it is certain that the editor of his 



IV. 2] 



COMMENTS. 



137 



prophecies, when he lived and labored, believed that 
the case of Judah was not so desperate as one would 
gather from the alternate threats and invectives of the 
preceding chapter; but that, as Isaiah himself doubtless 
taught, the nation was to survive the destruction of its 
wicked rulers. Hence he has placed at the end of this 
division of the book a prophecy concerning 

(3) The Rescued Remnant (iv. 2-6). — 2. It begins with 
the familiar phrase, In that day, which has been reck- 
oned among the indications that the whole passage is 
editorial (Duhm). This, however, is an unsafe criterion; 
for such passages as Am. ii. 16, Hos. i. 5, and Mic. ii. 4, 
show that it was a familiar formula in Isaiah's time, and 
ii. 11 and 17, that he himself was not averse to using it. 
On the other hand, see iii. 18, etc. The words rendered 
the growth of Jehovah have been very variously inter- 
preted. The favorite interpretation has been that which 
makes them a title of the Messiah. At first sight, it 
seems to be supported by Jer. xxiii. 5 and xxxiii. 15, and 
Zee. iii. 8 and vi. 12, where "Growth," or, as it is ren- 
dered in the English version, " Branch," is undoubtedly 
so to be understood. The usage in these passages, 
however, must not be regarded as decisive for this case, 
if it can be shown that the interpretation in question 
does not harmonize with the context : a task of no great 
difficulty. The verse is a couplet, constructed on the 
principle that dominates Hebrew poetry, parallelism. 
Further, it is a case of what is called synonymous paral- 
lelism ; for, since the double predicates in the two mem- 
bers, goodly and famous in the first, and glorious and 
beautiful in the second, correspond, the subjects are to 



138 



ISAIAH. 



[IV. 2 



be considered equivalents. But the fruit of the land can 
mean neither more nor less than the agricultural prod- 
uce of Palestine ; hence the growth of Jehovah must 
signify that which Jehovah shall cause to spring from 
the sacred soil of that country. This interpretation is 
confirmed by two further considerations : In the first 
place, the word here used is apparently a reminiscence 
of the passage in the second account of creation, in 
which Jehovah is described as causing to grow from the 
ground the trees that adorned the garden in Eden (Gen. 
ii. 9); and, secondly, some reference to the material 
blessings to be enjoyed by the survivors is perfectly in 
place in a picture of the new era. See i. 19; Hos. hi. 
5 ; etc. On the other hand, the use of the term growth 
as a name for the Messiah by Jeremiah and Zechariah 
can easily be explained, if, with most who contend for 
the same interpretation here, one take for granted that 
this verse, as well as xi. 1, is Isaianic. Both passages 
deal with the ideal future. In the latter the ideal king 
is actually called a shoot and a sprout. It is not strange, 
therefore, that Jeremiah, and after him Zechariah, 
having the three words in mind, should have chosen the 
first used by Isaiah, regardless of the fact that he did 
not mean by it precisely what he meant by the others. 
There are further illustrations in plenty of such freedom 
in the Hebrew Scriptures.* The blessing that Jehovah 

* It Is seldom worth while to recall discarded theories ; but, in the 
present case, the false interpretations have been so many and various, that 
the mention of the most important seems warranted as illustrating the pos- 
sibilities of error in exegesis. The growth of Jehovah has been supposed 
to mean the remnant, and the fruit of the land either their descendants 
(Eichhorn), or the actual produce of the soil (Gesenius). The latter is 
Jerome's interpretation, except that he sees in the remnant the followers 



IV. 2, 3 ] 



COMMENTS. 



139 



promises to bestow is described in the most glowing 
language. It is to be goodly and famous (lit. for grace 
and honor), decking the country, and thus bringing it 
honor; glorious and beautiful (lit. for pride and orna- 
ment), engendering a patriotic pride by its beauty : and 
all this to the survivors in Israel ; not restored exiles, 
but, if the phrase is genuine, those who have escaped 
death or deportation during the period of chastisement.* 
3. This is more clearly expressed in the threefold 
description, left in Zion . . . spared in Jerusalem . . . 
enrolled to live, i.e., ordained, destined, to survive in 
Jerusalem. The last of these expressions is an allusion 
to the book of life, in which, according to the Hebrew 
method of representation, the names of those whose 
lives were to be prolonged, were inscribed (Ex. xxxii. 
32 f . ; Dan. xii. 1; comp. 1 Sam. xxv. 29). When the 
doctrine of the future life became established, the con- 
ception of the book of life was correspondingly enlarged 
and spiritualized (Rev. xx. 12; etc.); but there is no 

of Christ. To a different category belongs the view that the terms em- 
ployed denote the Davidic family and the common people respectively 
(Roorda). Then there are the various ways in which the belief in the 
Messianic character of the passage has expressed itself. The simplest is 
the opinion that each of these terms is a designation for the Messiah 
(Delitzsch). Some have gone so far as to assert, that, in the first, the 
doctrine of the divinity, and in the second, that of the humanity, of 
Jesus is revealed (Hengstenberg). A less consistent interpretation is that 
according to which the growth of Jehovah is the Messiah, but the fruit of 
the land the Church, Jewish (Targum) or Christian (Zwingli). Finally, 
mention should be made of a type of exegesis which makes both terms 
include all the blessings of the Messianic future (Orelli), or the former 
the spiritual, and the latter the temporal, bestowments in store for the 
faithful (Nagelsbach). 

* Reuss declares this last clause a gloss ; and in fact it does mar the 
rhythm, without adding to the meaning, of the verse. 



140 



ISAIAH. 



[IV. 3, 4 



reference to the future life in this passage. Comp. 
Nagelsbach. The Hebrews represented Jehovah as 
determining beforehand the fate of individuals, but not 
without regard to their character. In Ps. lxix. 29/28, 
to be enrolled in the book of life is to be enrolled among 
the righteous. So here, they that are enrolled to live 
are the holy, those who are devoted to their God and 
obedient to his requirements. See Rev. xxi. 27.* 

4. The movement of thought is still retrograde. The 
blessing of v. 2 was explained by the holiness of v. 3 ; 
and now the holiness of the inhabitants of Zion the fair f 
is explained by the cleansing process to which the city 
is to be subjected. Her filth, vile deeds, with their vile 
doers, and her blood, cruel deeds, and their cruel perpe- 
trators (i. 15), are to be removed by a blast of judgment, 
the divine energy operating punitively, as in ii. 12 ff., 
and a blast of destruction, the same blast viewed in its 
effect (Ps. xviii. 16/15 ) J°b iv. 9). Thus, in giving ex- 
pression to his faith in the ultimate rescue of a remnant, 
Isaiah, if, as seems the case, these are his words, takes 
care to warn the mass of his people that there is no 
hope for them. % 

* In the original this verse is connected with the preceding by the wazv 
consecutive, which would naturally, and, in one view, properly, be ren- 
dered and, since the calling holy might well be regarded as subsequent to 
the blessing of v. 2 ; but since it is really the being holy of which the 
prophet is thinking, and this must be regarded as antecedent to the bless- 
ing, for is better than and as a connective. 

t The text has flliS, daughters ; but, as the use of Jerusalem in the sec- 
ond half of the verse clearly shows, the original reading must have been J"Q, 
daughter, which was intentionally or unintentionally changed to the plural so 
as to connect this with the preceding prophecy. See iii. 17. The Septuagint 
remedies the mistake by associating the sons with the daughters of Zion. 

\ Most of the later critics deny the genuineness of any part of this 



IV. 5 ] 



COMMENTS. 



141 



5. Thus far Isaiah. The picture was completed by 
another hand.* The added touches are such as would 
appeal to later Jews. Jehovah is to create, f in harmony 
with the new order of things, over the whole site of 
Mount Zion, the abode of Jehovah and the scene of the 
festivals in his honor, — which Isaiah counted of little 
importance, — a cloud of smoke by day, % like that which 
rested on the tabernacle and guided the hosts of Israel 
during the Exodus (Num. ix. 15 ff.), becoming the glow 
of flaming lire, a luminous cloud, by night (Ex. xl. 38 ; 

paragraph. See especially Hackmann, ZJ, 19 f.; but Stade {ZA W, 1884, 
149 ff.) insists that vv. 2-4 are Isaianic, and there are good grounds for 
this opinion. The ideas therein presented are the same, although they 
appear in an inverse order, as those of the first chapter, and decidedly 
different from those, e.g., in such passages as iii. 25 f. ; where Jerusalem is 
represented, not as cleansed, but as overthrown. Nor, especially if the 
last two (Hebrew) words of v. 2 be omitted as a gloss, is there anything 
in the language justly to excite suspicion. All this is virtually admitted by 
the adverse critics, in that, as will appear upon an examination of their 
arguments, they base their objection to the whole paragraph on the lan- 
guage and ideas of vv. 5 f . See also Cheyne, IBf, 20 ff. If they would 
examine each of the two halves of the prophecy separately, as Stade does, 
they would naturally come to his conclusion; not, however, in all its de- 
tails; for Stade supposes that the order in vv. 2-4 has been reversed, a 
hypothesis which the interpretation given above renders unnecessary. 

* The proof of this is in (1) the use of the word fc$"D, create, which 
is very rare except in later Hebrew, especially Isa. xl.-lxvi.; (2) the al- 
lusion to the Priestly rather than the Jehovistic account of the Exodus, 
the latter of which always represents the cloud and the fire as in the form 
of a pillar — comp. Ex. xiii. 21 f. with xl. 36 ff.; and (3) the evident inter- 
est of the writer in the temple and its worship; comp. i. 10 ff. 

f Duhm and others, following the Septuagint, but neglecting the re- 
quirements of the context, read fcO% and come. 

% This is more euphonious than a literal rendering, a cloud by day, and 
smoke, of the text. Some interpreters, neglecting the punctuation, con- 
nect and smoke, with what follows (Cheyne) ; but this destroys the 
balance of the line, as does, also, the omission of the word (Kautsch). 



142 



ISAIAH. 



[IV. 5, 6 



Num. ix. 1 6). In other words, the presence of Jehovah 
will be seen and felt as it was in the most memorable 
period of Hebrew history. The rest of the verse is 
difficult, but the most satisfactory rendering seems to be 
that in which these words are united with the first of the 
next verse, as follows : yea, over the whole shall there be 
a glorious canopy and pavilion ; the cloud just described, 
as a symbol of the divine presence.* 

6. This cloud is not to be a mere phantasm, but a shel- 
ter from the heat,f and a refuge . . . from the storm and 
the rain. The words are not entirely figurative. The 
heat is sometimes very oppressive in Palestine (2 Kgs. 
iv. 19), while the storms', especially in winter, are often 
exceedingly violent and destructive (1 Kgs. xviii. 44 f . ; 
Thomson, LB, II. 86 f., 632). The author cannot have 
thought of Jehovah as powerless to protect his people 
against injury from such causes. It is possible, how- 

* The words might be rendered literally : for over all glory there is a 
canopy (Dillmann) ; but this is too tame. Moreover, it gives to the term 
glory an unnatural application. The latter objection holds against the ren- 
dering : for over all glory there shall be a canopy (Delitzsch), and all 
others in which the glory is that of Zion rather than that of Jehovah. On 
the other hand, the translation, for above all glory shall be this canopy 
(Kocher) smacks of Jewish subtlety. See the Targum. The best inter- 
pretation is one in which the glory in question is identified with that of 
Jehovah revealed in the cloud overhanging Zion (Zee. ii. 9/5). This be- 
ing admitted, there is not much choice between the rendering above sug- 
gested and Yea, over all shall the glory be a canopy. And a tabernacle it 
shall be, etc. (Lowth), or : for over all \_lieth~] glory. Covering and shelter 
shall be, etc. (Bredenkamp) ; but the first is most rhythmical. On the 
construction of 1123 for I'D 3, see Ges. § 128, 2, R. 2; and for that of b^, 
Gen. xvi. 12. 

f The text adds, by day, but since the phrase has no significance in this 
connection, and the Septuagint have nothing to correspond to it, one may 
conclude that DftV is here a reminiscence of v. 5. 



IV. 6-V. i] 



COMMENTS. 



143 



ever, that he had in mind chiefly the dangers and mis- 
fortunes to which he and his people were exposed from 
the violence of wicked men, and for which the natural 
phenomena cited are appropriate figures. See xxv. 4. 

The chapter which follows is independent of those 
both before and after it. It is not all of a piece, but the 
two parts of which it is composed are both early, and of 
such a character that they can be grouped under a single 
title, 

b. THE UNPROFITABLE VINEYARD (v.). 

The first part, 

(1) The Parable (vv. 1-7), — is the finest of Isaiah's 
prophecies, and one of the most admirable literary pro- 
ductions in the Old Testament. 

1. The prophet proposes to sing a song. One can 
imagine the interest that such a proposition would excite, 
and the eagerness with which people would gather about 
him as he ran his fingers over the instrument on which 
he was going to accompany himself. He throws very 
little light on the subject of his song when he describes 
it as of my friend, i.e., about him ; since there is as yet 
no indication who his friend is : but he adds, by way of 
explanation, a song of my friend, i.e., of his composition, 
and then, further, concerning his vineyard. The subject, 
therefore, is the vineyard of his friend, and the song 
one that his friend has taught him. Yet he proceeds 
with the song in the third person : A vineyard had my 
friend, not, a vineyard had I, as his friend would have 
said, on a fertile hill (lit. a horn, a son of oil), where, 
for the sake of a better exposure, vineyards were, and 
are, usually located (Am. ix. 13). 



144 



ISAIAH. 



2. The next three lines review the activities of vine- 
dressers in general, and the experience of Isaiah's friend 
in particular. He first digged his ground over with the 
mattock (vii. 25). This was the most thorough method 
of tillage known to the Hebrews. In the vineyards, 
after they were planted, no other was possible. He 
next cleared it of stones : no slight task, for the land in 
some parts of Palestine is very stony ; but he thus ob- 
tained material for the wall mentioned in v. 5. This 
being done, he planted it with cuttings, first soaked for 
some days in water, from choice vines, vines that bore 
a bright red grape, and gave its name to the valley of 
Sorek, the home of Delilah. When he had started his 
vineyard, he built a tower in the midst of it, in anticipa- 
tion of the time when he should have a vintage to pro- 
tect. Such a tower was built of stones, and contained 
a room on the ground, with a winding stair leading to 
the flat roof in which the structure terminated. The 
room furnished a shelter for the owner or his servants, 
and the roof a look-out from which the keeper could 
watch for marauders (Ps. lxxx. 14/ 13; Can. ii. 15). His 
last preparatory act was to provide it with a wine-press . 
This he hewed out. The rock underlying the soil of 
southern Palestine is a soft limestone. There is, there- 
fore, not much labor involved in hewing out of it two 
basins, one for the grapes, and a second smaller but 
deeper, connected with the first by a hole through the 
thin partition between the two, for the juice when it is 
expressed. See Van Lennep, BL, noff. ; Thomson, 
LB, I. 277. Having spent so much care and labor 
upon his vineyard, the owner expected it to yield grapes 
of the best sort in abundance. He was disappointed; it 



V. 2-6] 



COMMENTS. 



145 



yielded only wild ones, no better fruit than would have 
grown among the weeds by the wayside. 

3. Now therefore, says the prophet, adopting a more 
earnest tone, and passing from the third to the first per- 
son, to make his appeal more effective, judge . . . between 
me and my vineyard. 

4. He puts the case in two questions, to each of which 
there can be but one answer. The owner is blameless ; 
the vines are at fault. 

5. Jesus, in his adaptation of this parable, introduced 
a similar appeal (Mat. xxi. 40), and succeeded in making 
his hearers condemn themselves ; Isaiah cannot wait for 
his answers, but, taking them for granted, and still per- 
sonating his unknown friend, he cries in his impatience, 
let me tell you what I shall do to my vineyard ; and 
then, with almost the abruptness of a command, take 
away* its hedge, the hedge of thorns by which, per- 
haps, the field had originally been enclosed; that it 
may be cropped by sheep and goats, whose destructive- 
ness to vineyards was alluded to in iii. 14. He will tear 
down its wall, too, the wall built from the stones with 
which it was once covered ; that it may be trampled by 
the flocks and herds (vii. 25). 

6. This is not all. I will put an end to it, as a vine- 
yard, he says, and explains how his purpose is to be 
fulfilled, it shall neither be pruned, as every vineyard: 
had to be once a year, nor tilled between the rows with 
the mattock; thorns and briers, which need no attention, 
shall grow therein. Thus far there has been nothing to 

* "lO!"!, like P"1S, is an infinitive absolute, a form of the verb particu- 
larly adapted to express the impatience that the situation warrants. See 
Ges. § 113, 4, b, 5. 



146 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 6, 7 



indicate that Isaiah is not describing the experience of 
the owner of a literal vineyard. From his next words, 
I will also charge the clouds, it appears who his friend 
really is ; for none but Jehovah is able to close the win- 
dows of heaven and prevent the descent of the rain 
upon the earth (Am. hi. 6). 

7. The prophet now has no time to lose. Having 
thrown off his mask, he must make his point before his 
hearers disperse, disgusted with themselves for having 
taken any interest in his story. He is equal to the 
emergency. He concludes with a single couplet that 
goes straight to its mark. But,* he cries, the vineyard 
of Jehovah, the object of his care and protection, is the 
house of Israel, the Northern Kingdom ; and the men of 
judah, the Southern Kingdom, his delightful plantation ; 
not plant, as if there were any difference in the relation 
of the two nations to their common God. The parable 
applies to the two kingdoms as a whole, and to each of 
them independently. Both alike could boast that Jeho- 
vah had chosen them from among the peoples of the 
earth (Am. hi. 1 f.) for a great destiny ; and no less, 
that he had surrounded them with conditions calculated 
to assist them in fulfilling his purpose. Yet, in both 
cases, when, as he had a right to do, he expected redress 
(lit. judgment) by the strong of the wrongs of the weak 
(i. 1 7), lo — distress (lit. baldness) f of the lowly, the 

* For another good example of this use of "3 (lit. for), see Am. iii. 7. 

f The exact meaning of the original is doubtful. The signification 
murder (Dillmann) is based on the supposition that the root of ilsSEtta is 
USD, pour (Job xxx. 7), from the Arabic form of which a word for mur- 
derer is derived. Delitzsch prefers to refer it to add, and render it 
accumulation, i.e., robbery. It seems better still to connect it with the 
r*lS" T of iii. 17, and give it, as above, the signification baldness, as a sign of 



COMMENTS. 



147 



result of the violence of the upper classes (Am. ii. 7). 
The prophet here again employs paronomasia for the 
purpose of fixing his thought in the minds of his hearers. 
With the same object in view he repeats both the 
thought and the figure, only varying the corresponding 
words. In this final clause, for judgment he has right- 
eousness, or, freely rendered, restraint, and for mourn- 
ing, a cry, or complaint.* 

The meaning of the parable, then, is simply, that 
Jehovah has done what he could to make his people 
bring forth the fruits of righteousness, but they have 
disappointed him. Many have sought to apply it more 
in detail, but in so doing they have only weakened the 
effect of the one thought which the prophet wished to 
enforce. For a later application of the figure of the 
vineyard see Ps. lxxx. 9/8 ff. 

The parable of the vineyard ends with v. 7. It needs 
no further application. It is natural, however, to look 
for 

(2) The Development {yv. 8-30) — of the subject SO 
vividly presented in some detailed utterance. The re- 
mainder of the chapter answers this expectation. In 
its present form it is divisible into two sections. The 
first deals with 

mourning, thus obtaining as close a parallel for !tpl?S>, cry, as *£,t$2fo y judg- 
ment, has in nplik, righteousness. Comp. Luzzatto. 

* The following are among the best renderings for these two pairs of 
words by German interpreters : 

Gesenius : Gutthat — Blutthat ; Begliickung — Bednickung. 

Hitzig: Rechtes Hort — blutiger Mord; richtige Waage — immer Klage. 

Orelli : Rechtsspruch — Rechtsbruch ; Gerechtigkeit — Niedertrachtig- 
keit. 



148 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 8-10 



(a) The Sinners after their Kinds (vv. 8-24). — 
One after another Isaiah arraigns the various classes 
of offenders and pronounces sentence upon them : first 
of all, 

a. the avaricious (vv. 8-10). — 8. They are those 
that join house to house, and add field to field ; not 

every one who, having one house, buys another; but 
those who are not content until, having dispossessed 
the small owners that once shared it with them, they 
are left to dwell alone in . . . the land. Isaiah con- 
demns the unlimited accumulation of real property, 
doubtless, in the first place, because it was in direct 
violation of the traditional sentiment (i Kgs. xxi.) which 
expressed itself in the law to prevent the alienation of 
such property (Lev. xxv. 8 ff.); but his indignation was 
probably partly due to the fact, which Micah asserts 
(ii. 2), that the rich often obtained possession of the 
houses and lands of their poorer neighbors by fraud or 
violence. 

9. He claims the authority of Jehovah for the sentence 
that he pronounces : In my ears, the inner, and not the 
outer ears, [hath] Jehovah . . . [revealed himself]. The 
verb has fallen out of the text, but it is readily supplied 
from xxii. 14, which has the same form of expression.* 
This is the substance of the revelation : many houses, the 
numerous houses of the rich, shall be empty, deserted ; 
and, great . . . and goodly though they be, they shall be 
without a tenant. 

10. The reason follows. There is to be such a dearth 
that it will be impossible to live from the proceeds of 
the largest estates ; ten yokes of vineyard, the prophet 

* The Septuagint mistook h 2*K, my ears, for ears of; so also Luther. 



V. io, u] 



COMMENTS. 



149 



says, shall yield but one bath. Now, a yoke was as 
much land as a team of cattle could plough in a day. 
The term was not originally applicable to vineyards, 
since they were not ploughed ; but, like the English word 
acre, it came to denote a certain area without reference 
to the use to which the land was put. A vineyard of 
ten yokes would be a large one; yet the owner is to get 
from it but a bath, according to Thenius (Riehm, HBA, 
art. Maase ; Smith, DB, art. Weights and Measures), 
21.26 quarts, of wine. This, of course, is a pitifully, 
ruinously small yield. That of the fields, however, will 
be even smaller ; for, when the crop has been harvested, 
the owner will find that he has only an epliah. — a dry 
measure of the same size as the bath — of grain as the 
return from a homer, ten times the amount, of seed. It 
is plain that, at this rate, the richest must soon starve 
in the midst of their ill-gotten acres. 

ft. the dissolute (vv. 1 1— 1 7) — next receive atten- 
tion. 11. They rise early in the morning, to pursue, not 
the proper objects of interest or devotion, but drink, 
intoxicating liquor of any kind, especially that prepared 
from grain, honey, dates, and other fruits. The He- 
brews, although wine was one of the staples of their 
country (vv. 1, 10), and they used it as commonly as 
they now use coffee (1 Sam. xvi. 20), even overlooking 
occasional excess in the use of it (Gen. xliii. 34), always 
condemned the drunkard (Prv. xxiii. 29 ff.); and such 
they regarded any one who indulged in stimulants early 
in the day (Ecc. x. 16 f.). Isaiah represents the drunk- 
ards of his time as so eager for liquor that they not 
only spend the entire day in its pursuit, perhaps going 



150 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 11-13 



from one convivial gathering to another, but tarry in 
the evening until wine inflame thern ; * excite them 
beyond the limits of self-control, making madmen of 
them. See xxviii. 7 f. 

12. Follow them to one of their assemblies. There 
are all sorts of musical instruments : the one that David 
played ( 1 Sam. xvi iS), a stringed instrument with a 
sounding-board, like the lute ; another with strings, but 
without the sounding-board, the psaltery ; the tabret, or 
drum ; and the flute, or pipe, in one of its many forms. 
See Riehm, HBA, art. Musik. These and wine, sensual 
delights, constitute their feasts, and so engross them 
that they regard not the work of Jehovah ; take no note 
of the preparations which, as the prophet clearly per- 
ceives, he is making to destroy them. 

13. Therefore, because they are thus blind to what 
they might see, he continues, shall my people, not all 
of them, as he will presently explain, go into captivity 
unawares, without having realized that there was any 
danger (comp. Delitzsch) ; their rich (lit. wealth), who 
now live in luxury, shall be pinched f with hunger, 
reduced to starvation ; even their wealthy (lit. abun- 
dance), who now spend their days and nights in drink- 
ing, parched with thirst, denied even water. % 

* The Hebrew word means chase as well as bum (Gen. xxxi. 36), 
a fact of which the prophet must have taken account when he chose it for 
this connection. 

f For Tift read as in Deu. xxxii. 24. The versions read "HEi dead. 

% The word "I—*, which often means honor, in this connection is taken 
by interpreters generally as a collective, in the sense of the nobility, and 
the correlative of pJOH, which is therefore rendered by some such term as 
populace. The expression my people, in v. 13, seems to favor such an 
interpretation; but it cannot be the correct one; for the final words of the 



V. i 4 ] 



COMMENTS. 



151 



14. But captivity, with hunger and thirst, and the 
other unnamed horrors which it implies, is only one of 
the evils which the offenders are to suffer. On account 
of their sins shall Sheol, the under-world, in which the 
shades of the dead are confined (xiv. 9 ff.),* here pict- 
ured as a huge dragon, or other monster, distend her 
maw ; enlarge her capacity ; and open her mouth f with- 
out limit, to receive the multitudes destined for her. 
They are of the same class as those who are doomed 
to captivity ; the showy, in dress or appearance (Ps. ex. 
3), and wealthy and noisy revellers among them 5 i i.e., 

paragraph (v. 17) clearly show, that Isaiah had only one class, and that the 
upper class, in mind. It is therefore necessary to give to each of these 
words a sense that is applicable to this class. Nobles and revellers, i.e., 
noble revellers (Ewald), or nobles and wealthy (de Dieu) have been sug- 
gested; but, since in x. 3, a part of this prophecy, 11—3 evidently means 
wealth, one seems warranted in giving it a similar interpretation in the 
present instance, and thus obtaining a still closer parallelism. For |"EH see 
Ix. 5. 

* On the Babylonian idea of the under-world see GSmith, CAG, 2 239 ff. 
f For ,TB m»B1 read m»B .TBI, and for TTJ read ^ ; comp. Dri. 
§132. 

X In the preceding verse the suffix 1 (lit. his) undoubtedly refers to 
my people, and is therefore properly translated its or their. It is not so 
clear to what the suffix H in the latter half of this verse refers. It is hardly 
possible that its antecedent throughout is blK£', Sheol ; and if it were, 
could not well mean over her (Alexander). It is more natural to take 
this word in the sense of in her, referring to the place where the revellers 
now are, and the suffixes of the preceding words as denoting that the 
persons in question belong to the same place. To the question, What 
place is meant? two answers have been given. The majority of the com- 
mentators say, Jerusalem (Delitzsch) ; but, if this verse is really a continua- 
tion of v. 13, — which Duhm denies, — the change in the gender of the 
suffix can best be explained by supposing that Isaiah, as he proceeded, 
unconsciously substituted JHK, land, i.e., Judah, for SU, people. The 
rendering their may therefore be carried through both verses, as it is in the 
English version. 



152 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 14-17 



among the people. It is not necessary to suppose that 
the prophet here had in mind an earthquake (Duhm). 
The destruction of multitudes by war, or any other 
summary means, could be described under the same 
figure. See Kab. ii. 5. 

15. The woe upon the dissolute might have ended 
with their disappearance in Sheol ; but it does not. 
There follow yet three verses, the first two of which 
sound familiar. They are really a variation upon ii. 9 
and 11. This fact in itself would not warrant very 
serious doubt as to their genuineness ; but, when one 
notes that it is now, not the drunken, but the haughty, 
who are threatened with destruction, one is obliged to 
confess, at least that they do not belong to this con- 
nection.* 

16. The verses were inserted because this seemed a 
good place to recall the main thought of chapter ii. 
It is interesting to observe that to be exalted, when the 
expression is applied to Jehovah, is the same thing as 
to be sanctified, by righteousness, i.e., by the punish- 
ment of the wicked. 

17. There is a final word by Isaiah concerning the 
drunkards. When the wrath of Jehovah shall have 
done its terrible work, and they shall have been re- 
moved, where they once dwelt shall lambs graze as in 
their pasture, and there, on deserted lands, with their 
rich verdure, shall fatlings feed.f See vii. 23 ff. Comp. 
Henry. 

* The change from the Perfect to the Imperfect with waw consecutive 
also shows that these verses are not in their original setting. 

f The last words are difficult. Parallelism requires that, in the second 
half of the verse, there should be a word to correspond to CU?S3, lambs. 



V. i8, 19] 



COMMENTS. 



153 



7. the presumptuous (vv. 1 8 f.) — are next ar- 
raigned. iS. They are those that drag guilt, not, as 
a load, after them (Orelli), but, as a crushing weight, 
to, or upon, them (Am. vi. 3) with cords of folly, sin, as 
coolly as one would pull a fish out of the water (Job 
xl. 25; Eng. xli. 1); and punishment (Zee. xiv. 19), 
calamity, as with a cart-rope, with all their might.* 

19. They are hastening their own destruction ; yet 
they are so blind to the indications of its approach that, 
when they are warned, they recklessly retort : Let come 
. . . speedily . . . what he would do ; t the threatened 
evil. They go so far as to mimic Isaiah, and introduce 
into their challenge that awe-inspiring name, the Holy 
One of Israel. See xxviii. 15 ; comp. Am. v. 18. What 
their fate is to be he does not stop to make known. % 

Such a word is fi'nE, which, according to Ps. Ixvi. 15, means animals of 
some sort. If, however, it denotes failings, — comp. K"HS in Eze. xxxix. 18, 
— it must be the subject of the sentence in which it stands, rather than a 
genitive dependent upon the preceding noun. Thus the sentence is pro- 
vided with both a subject and an object, and D^T, if it is retained, must be 
construed as a modifier of ETltt (Hitzig). But, although there is sense in 
describing the wolf as dwelling with the lamb (xi. 6), it seems unnecessary 
to call attention to the fact that these fatlings tarry where they feed. In 
short, S""U is superfluous, and the only way to account for it is to suppose 
that it is a mistake for some other word originally intended to explain D'flfc. 
The later critics incline to think, with Durell, that the original was E'U, 
for D"1J!, kids (Buhl); but the Septuagint have the plural of a/xvos; which 
they never use for while they do use it to render "O, lamb, in Jer. li. 40. 
The original gloss was therefore probably E*™12, lambs. 

* One is tempted to favor the ingenious emendation suggested by 
Knobel, rfTiUn Ti'iEUE, with a rope of wickedness, if for no other reason, 
because it seems difficult to make it understood that there can be more 
than one use for a cart-rope. 

f On ,Tw"n\ see Ges. § 48, 3, R. 

X According to Duhm the conclusion has been lost; so, also, in the 
case of the remaining woes. 



154 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 20-22 



8. the perverse (v. 20) — are simply described. 
They call evil good, and good evil. Not that they do 
not know the difference. They ignore this distinction, 
recognizing no law but their own inclination. As if, 
adds the prophet, they should put darkness for light, 
and light for darkness, or reverse the verdict of either 
of their other senses. The punishment due such per- 
versity is left to the imagination. 

e. the self-confident {v. 21), — also, receive only 
passing attention. They are wise in their own eyes, 
above taking advice, even of Jehovah. Such can never 
prosper. See Prv. hi. 5 ff. 

£ the corrupt (vv. 2 2 -24) — are the last to be 
called to account. At first sight the prophet seems, in 
this paragraph, to have two distinct classes of persons 
in mind. This, however, is not the case. The key to 
the connection is found in Am. ii. 8. There the older 
prophet describes the sinners at Bethel as drinking 
"the wine of such as have been fined" at their feasts; 
in other words, he accuses them of making their judicial 
offices pay the expenses of their carousals. So here 
Isaiah arraigns the corrupt, as well as dissolute, judges 
of his time and country. Comp. Orelli. 

22. Men in such a position as theirs ought to be men 
of distinction. In a sense they meet this expectation : 
they are heroes, but not of the sort that win battles ; 
their might is in drinking wine. They are men of 
prowess, but only in mixing drink ; not with water 
(Delitzsch), but with spices, by which it was made 
stronger as well as more palatable (Ps. lxxv. 9/8 ; Can. 
viii. 2). 



V. 23, 24] 



COMMENTS. 



155 



23. When, however, they are called upon to perform 
their functions as magistrates, their courage disappears. 
They acquit the guilty, because they cannot resist a 
bribe, and the innocent * they rob of his innocence : con- 
demn in spite of his innocence ; also, of course, for a 
consideration. 

24. This time the prophet's indignation demands 
fuller expression. Such outrages will surely be pun- 
ished. Jehovah will see to it, that, as the fire's tongue 
lappeth s (lit. eatetJt) stubble, when it sweeps over a field, 
or hay, dried grass, used as fuel (Mat. vi. 30), sinketh in 
the flame f of the oven, they are utterly destroyed. The 
figure that follows has the same force. The doomed 
persons are compared to a plant with a root below, and 
a blossom above, the surface of the ground. The root 
becomes rotten and mingles with the soil, while the 
blossom, becoming dry, rises, and is carried away by the 
wind, like dust. So shall these judges be annihilated 
(Am. ii. 9; Job xviii. 16), because they have been guilty 
of the sins charged, and, in general, — and the same 
would apply to all the classes of sinners arraigned, — 
because they have rejected the teaching of Jehovah ; re- 
fused to obey his spirit speaking to them directly in their 
own souls, or indirectly through the prophets ; and de- 
spised the word of the Holy One of Israel, the God to 
whose wonderful guidance and protection the Hebrews 
as a people owe their existence. 

The first seven verses of the chapter illustrated the 
general condition of Israel. The second division has 

* For S' 1 p ,,b l^ read p'1*l, in harmony with 13ft ft (singular) and the 
versions. f On the accentuation, see Wickes, HP A, 134. 



156 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 25-30 



furnished the specifications, with threats of punishment 
interspersed among the offences enumerated. It, also, 
is complete in itself ; yet, like the first, it leaves some- 
thing to be desired. The sinners arraigned are to be 
punished ; but how ? Isaiah, when he wrote this 
prophecy, left the question unanswered. The collector, 
feeling the omission, supplied it by inserting a fragment 
on 

(b) The Avenger of Jehovah (vv. 25-30), — which 
once formed the conclusion of chapter ix.* This was 
really to misapply the passage ; for, while the preceding 
woes were probably directed against Judah, ix. 7/8 ff. 
clearly has chiefly to do with the fate of Israel. The 
matter, however, is not of so great consequence as it 

* There are various reasons for this statement: (1) The preceding 
prophecy, having, in v. 24, a fitting conclusion, needs no further addition; 
(2) the added conclusion does not fit its present position : e.g., while in 
v. 24 the evil described is to come, in v. 25 it is past; note also, p bti 
instead of p 1 ?, for therefore; (3) ix. 7/8-20/21 now has no conclusion. 
The fitness of these last verses of chapter v. to serve as a conclusion to 
chapter ix. is as apparent as their unfitness for their present connection: 
note, e.g., that ix. 7/8 ff. uses the past tense and p bv, but especially that it 
is divided into stanzas each of which closes with the refrain at the end of 
v. 25. Giesebrecht, to whom is due the credit of having discovered the 
original position of w. 26 ff. {BJ, 4 ff.), regards v. 25 as an editorial 
device to connect these verses with the prophecy to which they are now 
attached. See also Cheyne, IB I, 24 ff. This theory, however, is untenable. 
No one would have composed v. 25 to connect vv. 24 and 26 : for, in the 
first place, a connecting verse was not necessary; and, secondly, this verse, 
as the linguistic peculiarities noticed go to show, was composed with 
ix. 7/8 ff., and not v. 8ff., in mind. The latter consideration makes it 
probable that, as Duhm insists, v. 25 is the end of the next to the last 
stanza of the prophecy of which ix. 7/8 ff. is the beginning and v. 26 ff. the 
conclusion. It follows, also, that vv. 25 ff. must already have been sepa- 
rated from their original setting when the present collection was made. 
Comp. GASmith. 



V. 2 5 , 25] 



COMMENTS. 



157 



would be if Isaiah had not actually predicted the inva- 
sion of Judah, as well as Israel, by the Assyrians (viii. 
7 1. ; x. 28 ff.). 

25. Therefore, says the prophet, not on account of 
the sins above enumerated, but for reasons given in the 
lost verses, was the anger of Jehovah kindled ; at some 
time in the past; for Isaiah here, like Amos (in iv. 6 ff.), 
is recalling the chastisements by which Jehovah had 
sought to turn Israel from their rebellious course; and 
his hand outstretched, his power exerted, against them. 
See xxxi. 3. The result in this case was, that the moun- 
tains trembled, with an earthquake (Am. iv. 11), and their 
corpses, the bodies of those killed by falling walls, were 
as refuse in the midst of the streets ; into which, in an 
oriental city, everything is thrown. For all this, al- 
though he had so severely punished them, his anger 
turned not from them (Gen. xxvii. 45), but his hand was 
outstretched still, threatening further and severer pen- 
alties. The same refrain occurs ix. 11, 16, 20, and x. 4. 
Compare that of Am. iv. 6 ff. 

26. The calamity described in the preceding verse 
was the last of a series. They had had no effect. 
Now, therefore, Jehovah prepares to deliver them into 
the hands of the most terrible of enemies, he will hoist 
a signal ; summon, by means as effectual as the flags 
raised on hills and mountains, by which men summon 
one another in times of danger (xiii. 2), a nation from 
afar,* a remote nation ; and shrill, as one did to attract 

* The text has pimifl C'v , nations from afar ; but the use of the sin- 
gular w, to it, after the next verb, indicates that the original expression 
was the one found in Jer. xv. 5 : prH"22 "13, and that, after the latter of 
these two words had lost its first 12 to the former, the second ft was mis- 



158 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 26-28 



bees from their hives, to one,* the same one, from the 
end of the earth. No name is given to this nation, but 
there can be no doubt that it is the one whose appear- 
ance Amos (vi. 14) foretold in very similar language, the 
Assyrians. The description that follows makes this 
increasingly clear as it proceeds. 

They come as an army, quickly, swiftly, starting 
promptly and marching rapidly. 27. there is none that 
fainteth or falleth,! so hardened are they to fatigue 
and exposure. % Their outfit, too, is perfect ; the 
girdles of their loins, by which their armor is held 
in place and to which their weapons are attached 
(1 Sam. xvii. 38 f.), are not loosed; do not give way; 
nor are the strings of their shoes, the high-laced boots 
worn by soldiers (1 Kgs. ii. 5 ; Ragozin, SA, 372), 
broken. 

28. They are ready for action : their arrows, with 
heads of bronze or iron, are sharpened, ready for use ; 
and all their bows bent,§ as they advance to the attack. 

taken for the preposition of that form, and a. 1 inserted to make the rest 
intelligible. See also x. 3 and xvii. 13; comp. Delitzsch. 

* The text reads to it; but to one better expresses the prophet's mean- 
ing, since it is not Jehovah, but the nation summoned that is at the end 
of the earth. 

f The last clause of v. 26 and the first of v. 27 form a couplet. They 
should therefore both be in the same verse, but it does not matter with 
which they are connected. 

% The next line, they neither slumber nor sleep, is an odd one, in the 
metrical sense, and too extravagant for the connection; hence it is proba- 
bly, as Duhm contends, an interpolation. 

§ Lit. trodden, because the Hebrews sometimes used a bow so long that 
the archer could rest it on the ground, and so stiff that he had to set his 
foot upon it to bend it. The Assyrians always bent their bows, whether 
long or short, with their arms. See Riehm, HBA, art. Bogen; Smith, DB, 
art. Arms. 



V. 28-30] 



COMMENTS. 



159 



Some of them ride in chariots, the hoofs of their horses, 

as of all good horses before it was the custom to shoe 
them, are counted as flint, and their speed such that the 
oncoming of their wheels is like a whirlwind. Comp. 
Nah. ii. 5/4. 

29. The prophet likens this mass of men and animals 
advancing upon Israel to the beast in hunting which the 
Assyrians especially delighted, the lion, they have a 
roar like the lion's, ominous, terrible ; and when they 
growl and lay hold of prey, i.e., growling seize their vic- 
tim, they carry it off, and there is none to deliver. 
Comp. xxxi. 4. 

30. This is a fine passage. It is not improved by the 
addition of the verse with which the chapter now closes. 
Indeed, these last words are almost unintelligible. It is 
most natural to take they shall growl over it as a further 
application of the figure of the lion, and interpret it as 
meaning that the Assyrians, having carried off the cap- 
tives taken in the impending war, will vent their rage 
upon them, as the lion growls over the victim that it 
has carried to its lair (Am. iii. 4). if one look toward 
the land will then mean, if one of the captives turn his 
eyes toward his country ; and the rest, that he will see 
darkness, desolation and suffering, and the light, the 
happiness of the remaining inhabitants, obscured by 
its, the land's, clouds, misfortunes. Whatever may 
be the correct interpretation, the style is so clearly 
not that of Isaiah that one may safely pronounce the 
verse an addition to the preceding genuine fragment, 
made by some one, probably the editor of the collec- 
tion, for the purpose of making more evident than it 
seemed, what was supposed to be the original, or 



160 



ISAIAH. 



[V. 30-VI. 



at least an allowable, application of Isaiah's words ; 
viz. to the overthrow of the Jewish monarchy by the 
Babylonians.* 

c. THE CALL OF ISAIAH (vi.). 

This chapter has sometimes been regarded as an intro- 
duction to the group of prophecies following (Duhm). 
To this view there is the serious objection, that it is not 
suited to its supposed purpose. It is more nearly related 
to the chapters that precede ; to which, therefore, it 
may be considered an appendix intended to justify the 
prophet's hitherto almost unbroken severity. Perhaps, 
however, it did not always occupy its present position 
with reference to them, but originally served as an intro- 
duction to chapters ii.-iv. or ii.-v., and was displaced by 
chapter i., when this lesser book was incorporated into 
a larger collection. In discussing its date, one should 
distinguish between the narrative and the event nar- 
rated. The prophet's call naturally antedates all his 
prophecies, but the description of it may be consider- 
ably later. That the record actually is later than the 

* The subject of SH5'', roar, must be either Assyria or Jehovah; but 
the supposition that it is the latter requires such violence to the text that 
even Duhm shrinks from adopting it. In the interpretation of fHX 1 ? one 
should not give too much weight to viii. 21 f. ; where pit? is preceded 
by rbvtb, upzvard, or to the Greek codices, e.g., the Complutensian, that 
have been influenced by that passage. Toward the land is precisely the 
direction in which the eyes of the exiled Jews were always turned (xlix. 
14 ff. ; Ixiv. 10 ff.). It is more probable that *12£, distress, is a gloss sug- 
gested by viii. 22, than that anything common to the two passages has 
been lost from this one. If, however, the word is retained, it should be 
connected, not, in accordance with the accentuation, with the one follow- 
ing (Delitzsch), but, as both the sense and the rhythm require, with the 
one preceding. 



VI. i] 



COMMENTS. 



161 



event recorded, is indicated by the phraseology of the 
first verse ; for the words, " in the year that Uzziah died," 
would hardly have been used, if, at the time of writing, 
the king's death had been a comparatively recent occur- 
rence. On the other hand, it is not necessary to suppose 
that the desolation predicted in this, and described in the 
first chapter, had at that time actually been wrought. A 
date about 730 b.c. would seem to be most satisfactory ; 
but it may be from one to five years later. 

The chapter contains two scenes, the first of which is 
a description of 

(l) The Holy One of Israel (yv. 1-7) — in his majesty. 
1. It was In the year that King Uzziah died ; as shown in 
Intr. Stud. II., about 735 B.C., and before the death of 
the king. In that year he saw the Lord.* It is not to 
be supposed that there was an external appearance cor- 
responding to the description that follows ; for no one 
will claim that God really sits on a visible throne ; wears 
a robe with a train, etc. ; or that there was any reason 
or necessity, e.g., in the presence of persons less spiritual 
than the prophet, for seeming so to do (comp. Acts ix. 
1 ff.). Nor is there ground for believing that the phe- 
nomena described were due to the action of the divine 
spirit upon Isaiah's inner eye and ear; in other words, 
that the vision was real but symbolic. On the other 
hand, it would hardly be doing justice to this narrative 
to say, that, on the occasion in question, the prophet ex- 
perienced only a series of convictions which he afterward 
clothed in the form of a vision. A safer explanation 
would be, that, being in an ecstasy, he then and there 

* Many manuscripts and editions have fil.T, Jehovah. 



162 



ISAIAH. 



[VI. I, 2 



involuntarily clothed the convictions experienced in the 
form in which they have been preserved. Comp. Jno. 
xii. 41. It was natural and customary to represent 
Jehovah as a king (Ps. xlvii.). Here, as in Jer. xvii. 12 
he sat on a throne lofty and exalted, while his train, the 
skirts of his robe, filled, covered the entire pavement of, 
the temple. It is not the heavenly palace of Jehovah 
that is meant (Orelli) : for, although it is taught in places 
in the Old Testament, that his throne is in heaven (lxvi. 
1 ; Ps. ii. 4), the earlier idea seems to have been that it 
was between the cherubim (1 Sam. iv. 4 ; Isa. xxxvii. 16), 
in the temple at Jerusalem (Jer. iii. 17; xiv. 21; Ps. 
xlvii. 9/8); and the fact that the word temple here, and 
the word altar in the sixth verse, are unmodified except 
by the article, shows that Isaiah meant to be understood 
as referring to the temple and the altar with which his 
readers were familiar. He seems to have imagined him- 
self at the door outside the structure. 

2. Jehovah was attended by Seraphs : not angels 
(Alexander), for angels have no wings in the Old Testa- 
ment ; nor cherubs (Henderson), for the office of cherubs 
was to support, rather than to surround, the throne ; but 
composite forms which seem originally to have repre- 
sented the lightning, or the thunder cloud, but which the 
prophet here introduces as guardians of the sanctuary 
and messengers of the Almighty. See Ps. civ. 4 ; comp. 
the "living creatures" of Rev. iv. 6 ff. The seraphs 
have faces, and hands, and feet ; but whether these were 
the faces, etc., of the human, or of some lower form, is 
uncertain; also the number of them.* They hovered 

* The word (lit. burning) is also applied to the serpent that 

plagued the Hebrews in the desert (Num. xxi. 6), and the image that 



VI. 2, 3 ] 



COMMENTS. 



163 



about liim (lit. stood above him), sustaining themselves 
above the pavement and the outspread train, but not 
above the occupier of the throne, each with six wings, 
three pairs : with two he covered his face, in awe of 
Jehovah ; with two . . . his feet, the lower part of his 
body, being otherwise naked ; with two he flew, sus- 
tained himself in the position in which the prophet saw 
him. 

3. Hovering thus about the throne, one cried to another, 
responsively, Holy ! holy ! holy ! For the meaning of 
the term holy see the comment on i. 4. The repetition 
of it is not a mere substitute for the superlative ; it sug- 
gests a degree of the quality denoted that challenges 
adoration but defies expression (Jer. xxii. 29 ; Rev. iv. 8). 
How deep was the impression made thereby upon the 
prophet, appears in the name " Holy One of Israel," of 
which Isaiah was probably the originator. See i. 4, etc. 
The second line repeats the first, but with certain modi- 
fications. The effect of the preceding repetition is 
secured by a different means, the whole earth is full, 
so abundant is his glory, the revealed expression of his 
holiness, or, as Paul expresses it, " his everlasting power 
and divinity " (Rom. i. 20). Here, however, it is not 
merely the glory seen "in the things that are made," 
that is meant, but, also and especially, that which ap- 
pears in his dealings with his people (Num. xiv. 21 f. ; 
Isa. v. 16). 

Moses then made for their protection. Hence it has been supposed that 
the seraphs were winged dragons, and that their employment in the 
vision was suggested by this image, which, according to 2 Kgs. xviii. 14, 
was not destroyed until the reign of Hezekiah (Delitzsch) ; but it is 
doubtful if the description given by Isaiah will warrant such a theory. 
See Baudissin, SSR, I, 285. 



164 



ISAIAH. 



[VI. 4, 5 



4. Then the foundations of the threshold, the structure 
in which the scene was enacted, to its very foundations,* 
quaked at the sound, as each seraph, or chorus of ser- 
aphs, cried, as if shaken by a succession of earthquakes. 
At the same time the house, the interior, was filled with 
smoke. This smoke is explained as a manifestation of 
Jehovah's glory (Cheyne : see Rev. xv. 8), or anger 
(Nagelsbach : see Ps. xviii. 9/8 f.); but, since it is the 
seraphs' hymn that shakes the house, it would seem 
more probable that the smoke was produced by them ; 
not, however, from their mouths (Duhm), but with in- 
cense burned as they sang. Nor was the smoke thus 
produced merely a symbol for praise (Delitzsch). It 
was the veil which they, like the high priest, when he 
entered the sanctuary (Lev. xvi. 13), placed between 
them and the glory that they were celebrating. Comp. 
also GASmith.f 

5. The prophet is duly impressed by the scene. The 
first effect is to enlarge his conception of Jehovah ; but 
no sooner does he begin to appreciate the divine per- 

* Other interpretations of D"SDn DlEi* are -.^supports of the lintel (De- 
litzsch), frame of the door (Hitzig), hinges of the door-posts (Buhl); all 
of which fall short of Isaiah's meaning. Here, as in Am. ix. I, the 
writer wishes to describe an effect which he must have thought of as con- 
vulsing the entire structure. This is best expressed by a reference to the 
foundations. The word P]D may, and regularly does, mean sill. It seems, 
therefore, safe to conclude, that this is its meaning in the present instance; 
and that whose derivation is doubtful, denotes something connected 

with sills, probably something underlying them. 

t Buhl treats these words as a circumstantial clause to be connected 
with the following verse, rendering it: While the house was filled with 
smoke, I said, etc.; but it is better to explain the arrangement as a device 
for contrasting iTSH, the interior, with D'SSm, the threshold, representing 
the exterior of the structure. See Gen. xiii. 12; Ges. § 142, a. 



VI. 5, 6] 



COMMENTS. 



165 



fections than he realizes his own imperfections. The 
sense of his unworthiness finally reaches such intensity 
that he exclaims, I am undone ! my fate is sealed ! The 
rest of the verse gives his reasons for his fears. The first 
is that he is a man of unclean lips. These words can 
have no reference to the future calling of Isaiah 
(Duhm) : for (i) there is nothing to show that he had 
yet received any intimation of his call ; (2) the realiza- 
tion of his unfitness for the prophetic office would not 
have given him cause to apprehend personal danger; 
and (3) he uses the same expression with reference to 
his people that he applies to himself. The key to this 
confession is probably to be found in the hypothesis, 
already suggested, that the prophet was worshipping 
in the temple when the vision was vouchsafed him. 
Being thus engaged, he would naturally put the thought 
of his unworthiness into the form of a confession, that 
he was unfit to take the name of his God upon his lips ; 
and the fact of his unfitness would, under the circum- 
stances, fill him with terror. Comp. Delitzsch. Nor 
does he fear for himself alone. His people are a people 
of unclean lips, unworthy of the God whom they profess 
to worship, and therefore exposed to his consuming 
wrath. He himself is in immediate danger, because, 
although sinful, his eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of 
Hosts ; whom none but those that walk with him can 
see, and live (xxxiii. 14 ff.). 

6. The confession is hardly ended before one of the 
seraphs comes flying to the penitent, bearing * a live 

* The word bearing is substituted for the literal reading, and in his hand, 
or in whose hand, lest it should seem that the coal, although taken from the 
altar with the tongs, was carried to Isaiah in the seraph's naked hand. 



166 



ISAIAH. 



[VI. 6-8 



coal * . . . taken, and borne, with the tongs, the use of 

which is not so strange as it would otherwise be, if the 
scene be supposed to be laid in the temple at Jerusa- 
lem, off the altar, the golden altar of incense in front 
of the curtain that usually separated the outer from the 
inner sanctuary (Ex. xxx. 6 ; i Kgs. vii. 48). 

7. The coal is a symbol of the power by which the 
sins of the prophet are to be removed (Num. xxxi. 23 ; 
Mai. hi. 2 ff.). With it the seraph touches the prophet's 
mouth, saying, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, whose 
uncleanness was lamented ; so shall thy guilt, the only 
cause for fear, depart, and thy punishment, the penalty 
attached (v. 18), be cancelled. Still there is no mention 
of the office for which Isaiah was destined. 

The ceremony just described was not one of conse- 
cration to the prophetic, or any other, office ; but that 
which it symbolized constituted a preparation for any 
office or duty to which the man on whom it was per- 
formed might be called. The call was not long de- 
layed. The remaining verses of the chapter unfold 

(2) The Mission of the Prophet (vv. 8-1 3). — 8. The 
Lord,f who has thus far sat in silent majesty on his 
throne receiving the adoration of his attendants, now 
speaks. His first words are, Whom shall I send ? in 
which there is neither any hint of the object of the mis- 
sion, nor any indication who would be an acceptable 
messenger. The question is repeated ; but this time, 
as in Gen. i. 26, Jehovah associates with himself his 

* Thus, the Septuagint, the Peshita, and other ancient authorities; 
others, a hot stone, such as was used in baking (i Kgs. xix. 6). 

f For ^IH, lord, many manuscripts and editions have m.T, Jehovah. 



VI. 8-io] 



COMMENTS. 



167 



attendants, saying, who will go for us ? Comp. 2 Kgs. 
xxii. 19 ff. To this question Isaiah, without asking 
what is to be the nature of his mission, eagerly re- 
sponds, Here am I ; send me. 

9. His offer is accepted, and he at once commis- 
sioned. Go, says Jehovah, to this people : a form of 
expression, which, in contrast with my people, implies 
contempt, but does not indicate precisely who are 
meant; whether the entire Hebrew stock or only one 
of the two kingdoms into which it was divided. Comp. 
viii. 6 with 11. Perhaps it will appear as the narrative 
proceeds. Hear on, but do not understand ; see on, but 
do not perceive.* This, of course, does not mean that 
Jehovah does not wish those to whom he is sent to pay 
any heed to the new messenger, or to take to heart the 
new experiences which he has in store for them. The 
words are ironical. What he really means is, that he 
intends to continue to speak to them through his 
prophet and his providence, although he knows that 
they will heed neither the one nor the other ; and that 
he intends to hold them accountable for the result fore- 
seen, because it is determined, not by his foresight, but 
by their unhindered choice. See Calvin, f 

10. He continues in the same strain, commanding 
Isaiah, Make the hearts of this people gross. The heart 
is here, as often in the Old Testament, the organ of 
thought and intelligence. See Piepenbring, TO T, 166 f. 
A gross, or, literally, fatty heart, is a mind in some way 
rendered insensible to appeals addressed to it. Isaiah 

* On the construction, see Ges. § 113, 3, b, 

f The freedom of those addressed is implied in the negative employed, 
the deprecatory bx, and not the prohibitory X^. 



168 



ISAIAH. 



[VI. 10-12 



is instructed to persevere in his mission, although the 
repetition of his message lessen, rather than increase, 
the probability that it will be heeded. Nay, more, he 
is to make their ears dull, and seal their eyes ; continue 
his work until he is not only disregarded, but utterly 
ignored, and it thus becomes impossible for them to 
see . . . and hear what the prophet has to show and tell 
them ; understand, take heed ; and, in consequence, be 
healed* again,| relieved from the calamities by which 
they are afflicted, and restored to prosperity. Here, of 
course, as in the preceding verse, although Jehovah 
seems to take the responsibility, when the people have 
reached the condition described, there will be no one 
but themselves to blame for it ; since the means to be 
employed are calculated, with their cooperation, to pro- 
duce a result of exactly the opposite character. See 
Mat. xiii. 14 f. ; Jno. xii. 39 f. ; Acts xxviii. 26 f. 

11. The prophet, perceiving that contempt for Jeho- 
vah's will means serious suffering, and shuddering at 
the possibilities which present themselves to his imagina- 
tion, anxiously inquires, How long, 0 Lord? i.e., how 
long will they persist in their course in spite of thy 
chastisements ? Jehovah replies, Until the cities, ruined 
by ruthless enemies, are without inhabitant, and unin- 
habitable, and the soil is left % a desert. 

12. No hint has thus far been given of the means 
by which the country is to be depopulated. Now it 
appears that some, at least, of its inhabitants will be 

* On see Ges. § 144, 3, a. 

f For Sttfl read See Ges. § 120, 2, a. 

% The text has H^tPD, be tvasted, but the Septuagint have the equivalent 
of "iKtSTl, and this is doubtless the correct reading. 



VI. 12, I 3 ] 



COMMENTS. 



169 



deported. Jehovah, not /, as one would have expected, 
will remove man far away. The rest of the verse adds 
nothing ; yet note the peculiar word desertion, which 
recurs in xvii. 9, where the destruction of the Northern 
Kingdom is threatened.* 

13. Lest the guilty people should flatter themselves 
with hopes of escape from the anger of Jehovah, he 
finally warns them that, if there be in it, their land, yet 
a tithe left after it would seem to have suffered suffi- 
ciently, it also, in its turn, shall be consumed. See 
Am. vi. 9 ff. There follows a comparison : like the 
terebinth and the oak, of which, when they are felled, 
there is a stump ; i.e., the remnant above mentioned 
will be destroyed as ruthlessly, and as completely, as 
are the stumps of oaks and terebinths when the trees 
have been felled. This is an allusion to the practice, 
still common, of using the roots of trees for fuel.f 

The gist, then, of the instructions given to the prophet 
is, that the people whom they concern are to be entirely 
destroyed. It may be taken for granted that he obeyed 
them. If he did, it ought to be possible to discover from 
his prophecies what he meant by this people. Turning 
to them, one finds that, whatever may have been his later 
teaching, in his earlier utterances, although he betrays 
more or less hope for Judah, he constantly insists that 

* For a fuller discussion of the relation of this chapter to ix. 7/8 ff. 
and xvii. see Hackmann, Z/, 75. 

f The text adds, A holy seed is its stump, thus giving an entirely 
different meaning to the comparison. There are, however, good reasons 
for believing the words ungenuine. The most weighty are : (1) that they 
give an unnatural turn to the thought of the chapter; (2) that the phrase 
holy seed bears the stamp of a later date; and (3) that the entire clause is 
wanting in the Septuagint. 



170 



ISAIAH, 



[VI. 13 



the Northern Kingdom is to be destroyed. On the fate 
of Israel see v. 29 and xvii. 3, 9 ; on that of Judah, i. 
26 and iv. 2 ff. It is instructive to note also, that, when 
Isaiah went to his famous interview with Ahaz, at which 
he predicted the destruction of Israel (vii. 16), he took 
with him Shear-yashub as a pledge of a better fate for 
Judah (vii. 3); and that, even when he saw that the 
king's wilfulness would be disastrous to the country, he 
could not believe that the Jews would suffer as severely 
as their neighbors (viii. 5 ff.). In view of all this it 
seems clear, that Israel, and not Judah (Cheyne), or 
Judah and Israel (Dillmann), are the people to whom 
Isaiah was sent with his first message. It follows that 
the fulfilment of the predictions contained in this mes- 
sage, as of those of Amos, must be sought in the Assyr- 
ian invasions which began soon after the date of the 
vision and resulted in the destruction of the kingdom of 
Israel.* 

The preceding chapters have dealt almost entirely 
with the sins of Israel and Judah, and the present or 
future consequences of their transgressions. Two or 
three times there were glimpses of a better future; but 
they were mere glimpses, lasting but a moment and 
serving only to make the present less endurable. The 
remaining chapters are not without gloomy passages ; 
but the tone, from the first, is hopeful, and at last it be- 
comes exultant. This change of tone is due to the fact, 
that, in these chapters, it is not the disloyal mass, but 

* This statement ignores the last three (Hebrew) words of the chapter. 
They were added by some one who either thought the doomed people 
Judah or wished to apply the prophecy to their case, and who, by adding 
them, made any other interpretation impossible. 



VII. i] 



COMMENTS. 



171 



2. The Loyal Remnant (vii.-xii.), 

to which attention is chiefly directed. Taking this as 
the general subject, one may divide the text as trans- 
mitted into two parts and give to the first the heading 

a. FAITH AND ITS REWARDS (vii. i-ix. 6/7). 

In it two sorts of faith are contrasted. The outcome of 

(l) Faith iii Man (vii. i-viii. 8) — is vividly portrayed 
in a double prophecy, the occasion of which was the 
Syrian crisis. In the first half of the prophecy appears 

(a) The Child Immann-el (vii.); — the introductory 
paragraph describing 

a. ahaz' dilemma (vv. i -9), — when Isaiah forced 
him to choose between Jehovah and Tiglath-pileser. 
1. It was early in the days of Ahaz, in fact, in the first 
year of his reign (734), when Resin (Ass. Rasunnu), 
who had been king of Syria since, at the latest, 738 B.C. 
(Schrader, KA T, 253 f.), and Pekah, who had meanwhile 
succeeded Menahem as king of Israel, went up to Jeru- 
salem to war . . . against it. In 2 Kgs. xvi. 5 they are 
said to have besieged Ahaz, and in 2 Chr. xxviii. 5 f . to 
have defeated him, and killed or captured hundreds of 
thousands of his subjects ; but in neither place is the 
capture of Jerusalem admitted. Indeed, in Kings as 
well as here, it is distinctly asserted that they did not 
prevail * in their attack. 

* For by read te\ as in 2 Kgs. xvi. 5. Compare Klostermann, who, 
in his note on the latter passage, contends that the subject is Ahaz; and 
that, therefore, the verb should be singular in both, while H against it, 
should be changed to D,T bv. against them. The whole clause, being aside 
from the narrative, should be treated as a parenthesis. See the translation 
prefixed to the comments. 



172 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 2, 3 



2. The preceding is a general statement with refer- 
ence to the war and its results. It is merely introduc- 
tory to the account of the interview between Ahaz and 
Isaiah that follows. This account explains only less 
directly than 2 Kgs. xvi. 9, why the attempt of Resin 
and Pekah upon Jerusalem failed ; viz. because the 
king of Assyria came to Ahaz' assistance. The hostile 
kings had not yet appeared before the city, when it was 
told the house of David, Ahaz and his court, Syria hath 
settled, like a swarm of insects,* upon Ephraim, having 
advanced thus far in the march upon the Jewish capital. 
The figure used implies that the Syrians were very 
numerous. It is therefore not strange that, when Ahaz 
and his people heard this report, and began to calculate 
the strength of the combined armies of Syria and Israel, 
their hearts . . . quaked with fear, as the trees of the 
wood shake in the wind : a beautiful simile. 

3. The first thought of Ahaz was to put the city into 
a state of defence ; the next, to appeal to the king of 
Assyria. While he was engaged in carrying out the 
first of these ideas, and probably before the second had 
revealed itself in action, Isaiah heard the voice of Jeho- 
vah saying to him, Go forth, from the city, to meet Ahaz. 
He was to take with him Shear-yashub, his son. The 
boy had doubtless been named " A-remnant-shall-return " 
in obedience to a divine command to that effect. One 
would infer as much from the part he here plays. The 
analogy of Immanu-el (y. 14) and Alaher-shalal-hash-baz 
(viii. 3), and the express declaration of the prophet, that 

* The aptness of the figure testifies to the genuineness of the reading, 
and against the emendation suggested by Lagarde, £17 HHK;, hath frater- 
?iized with, and adopted by Buhl and Bredenkamp. Cornp. Henderson. 



VII. 3] 



COMMENTS. 



173 



he and his sons were signs and tokens for his people 
(viii. 1 8), confirm this inference. This, however, means 
that, some time before the present date, probably about 
the time when he was instructed to announce the de- 
struction of Israel (vi. 13), he was authorized to declare, 
in the face of the dangers then threatening, that Judah, 
or a part thereof, would return to Jehovah and prosper- 
ity. He is now commanded to take the boy with him, 
in order that the king may be the more deeply impressed 
by the spoken message. The place where they were to 
find Ahaz was the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool. 
It is further described as the path to the Fuller's Field. 
The locality is the same where, some years later, Sen- 
nacherib's lieutenant took his position, when he demanded 
the submission of Hezekiah (2 Kgs. xviii. 17). It was 
probably on the northern side of the city, since that is 
the side from which it would naturally be approached, 
and tradition says that the Assyrian camp was located 
in that direction. (See Josephus,./ IV, v. 7, 3.) Josephus 
also says that, in his time, there was a Fuller's Monument 
on that side of the city (v. 4, 2). If, now, the aqueduct 
was to the north of the city, the pool can hardly have 
been what is now called the Pool of Mamilla, to the 
west of the city, as Robinson (BRP, I. 326 f.) and many 
others have claimed. See Delitzsch. Nor is it probable 
that it was a pool outside the walls northward ; for the 
outside end of the aqueduct of such a pool, if there was 
one, would be the pool itself. On the other hand, there 
has been discovered inside the walls, a little distance 
northwest 'of the temple area, a double pool ; and, near 
the Damascus gate, remains of an aqueduct by which it 
was once supplied with water (Wilson and Warren, R J, 



174 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 3-6 



198 ff.). This is probably the aqueduct at the outer end 
of which Isaiah was to find Ahaz. The king had doubt- 
less gone there for the purpose of concealing the source 
of the water supplied by the aqueduct, so that it would 
not be disturbed by his enemies. See 2 Chr. xxxii. 3 f .* 

4. Isaiah's message was one of encouragement : Take 
heed to be calm ; see to it that thou art not disturbed. 
Comp. Calvin. He saw no reason for great alarm. To 
him the two kings whose on-coming Ahaz dreaded were 
but two smoking f stumps of firebrands. The smoking 
bits of wood about a dying fire are not very dangerous ; 
neither, the prophet would say, these waning powers 
already doomed to destruction. His contempt for Pekah 
is such that, instead of calling him by name, he refers to 
him as the son of Remaliah, thus recalling the fact that 
he was a usurper. See 1 Sam. xx. 27 ; xxii. 12. 

5. The invasion was prompted by the anger of the 
kings of Syria and Israel at Ahaz, and its object was 
his overthrow. The occasion of their anger, as has 
already been suggested (Intr. Stud. II.), is supposed to 
have been his refusal to join them in a revolt against 
Assyria. 

6. Their plan, in its details, was to go up against 
Judah; by their numbers terrify it, ± — not Jerusalem 

* Stade (GVI, I, 591 f.) identifies the pool with one near the present 
Pool of Siloam, which Guthe unearthed in 1881 (ZDPV, 1882, 52 ff.); 
and the aqueduct with one by which water was carried thence into the 
Kidron valley, where he supposes the Fuller's Field to have been. The 
name borne by the well in the valley of the Kidron south of Jerusalem, 
might be cited in support of this theory; but it is difficult to understand 
what Ahaz could have been doing at the (lower) end of a conduit running 
in that direction. f On the construction of S""wT, see Ges. § 132, 1. 

% The verb is not elsewhere used in the causative stem. Hence it has 



VII. 6-8] 



COMMENTS. 



175 



(Delitzsch), but Judah; taking advantage of the conster- 
nation produced, overpower it (lit. break it open); and, 
finally, seat upon its throne the son of Tabeal. The 
person so called is not otherwise known. The omission 
of his name indicates that, in the eyes of the prophet, 
he was of no great importance. He was probably a 
Syrian, the name Tabeal being Aramaic, and either a 
relative or a dependent of Resin.* 

7. The plan to overthrow the Davidic dynasty Jeho- 
vah regards as a conspiracy against himself. He there- 
fore announces his determination to frustrate it : It shall 
not . . . come to pass. 

8. Lest Ahaz should hesitate to trust himself in the 
hands of his God, Isaiah is instructed to show him how 
weak his enemies really are. the head of Syria, its cap- 
ital, and the chief source of its strength, is Damascus, 
the same that was subdued by David and forced to receive 
a Hebrew garrison (2 Sam. viii. 6); and the head of 
Damascus, its king and its champion, Resin, a mere 
man, who has not yet shown himself invincible. Here 
follows in the text a sentence that is clearly an inter- 
been suggested that HOSFpS is a scribal error for i12p' , ^3, distress, an emen- 
dation favored by xxix. 2 (Gesenius, Thes.), or rW2£n3, destroy (Lagarde). 
See also the versions. The use of pp in v. 16, where the actual effect of 
the invasion is described, however, seems to prove the correctness of the 
reading found in the text. 

* The text has biOtp, which is usually explained as a pausal form of 
b$2to (Ezra iv. 7), the Aramaic for ^KSb, good (is) God (Miihlau & Volck) ; 
but a better is that of Luzzatto; viz. that the original reading was b&Stt, 
and that the last vowel was changed to make the word mean Good-for- 
nothing and express the contempt of the Masoretes for the would-be king. 
The Septuagint have Tabeel. Comp. Winckler, A U, 73 ff., according to 
whom ^Kitfi, Aramaic for the ttT^K ( God knows') of I Kgs. xi. 23, is here 
the name of the father and predecessor of Resin. 



176 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 8, 9 



polation. In the first place, it disturbs the connection. 
This objection might be met by removing the words in 
question to the next verse ; but there are two others that 
cannot so easily be disposed of. These are : (i) that it 
is not in the manner of Isaiah ; and (2) that it contra- 
dicts v. 16 and viii. 4, where a much speedier overthrow 
of Ephraim is announced. The gloss was probably 
added because the destruction of Israel by Sargon was 
not so complete as the genuine predictions of Isaiah 
were supposed to require, or as it actually became in 
consequence of the changes in the population effected 
by Esarhaddon (681-668 B.C.) and Asshurbanipal (668- 
626 B.C.). See Ezr. iv. 2, 10; Schrader, KAT, 373 ff. 
sixty and five years from the date of Isaiah's interview 
with Ahaz would be. about 669 B.C.* 

9. As in the case of Syria, so in that of Israel, there 
is nothing to fear unless its strength is overestimated. 
It has, to be sure, its son of Remaliah ; but who is he 
compared with Jehovah, the Champion of Jerusalem and 
Judah ? j Ahaz, therefore, to be safe, has only to trust 
in Jehovah. If, however, he will not do this, Isaiah is 
to withdraw the assurance of divine help and say to 
him, ye shall not abide (lit. be established).% 

The above is, in form, an account of the instructions 
given to Isaiah before his interview with Ahaz ; but it 

* The order of the numerals used is an indication of lateness of date. 
See Ges. §97, 3; Kon. II. 1, 215 ff. 

f A comparison between the sources of the strength of the allies and 
Jehovah is so clearly intended that Ewald supplies the corresponding state- 
ment. See also Cheyne (IB I, 395). 

% The rendering adopted is that suggested by the translators of KittePs 
History of the Hebrezvs, II. 344. The original has the same word in different 
forms to denote the exercise of confidence and the experience of security. 



VII. 9-n] 



COMMENTS. 



177 



is probably, in reality, a record of the message as it was 
delivered on the occasion of that interview. The mes- 
sage evidently did not produce the desired effect. 
Therefore the prophet received a second concerning 

(3. A SIGN AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE (vV. 10-lj). 

10. The time and place, when and where this message 
was received or delivered, are not given ; but the con- 
nection with the first one is so close, that one seems 
justified in inferring, that the king, when exhorted to 
trust in Jehovah, manifested a contrary disposition, 
whereupon the prophet was at once moved to propose 
a sign as an earnest of the divine favor. Hence Jeho- 
vah is represented as speaking further to Ahaz. Isaiah 
having, so to speak, brought the two together, regards 
himself simply as a mouth-piece. Comp. Nagelsbach.* 
11. Ahaz is directed to Ask ... a sign that the words of 
the prophet are the words of God. See 2 Kgs. xx. 9 ff. 
The title given to the Deity, Jehovah, thy God, is en- 
couraging. Comp. v. 13. The king is given the largest 
liberty in the choice of this token. He may go as deep 
as Sheol,t the extreme to which the imagination has pene- 
trated downward ; or into the heights, as far as possible 
in the opposite direction ; require, e.g., an earthquake or 
the obscuration of one of the heavenly bodies, if such 
a phenomenon will help him to trust in Jehovah for 
deliverance. :f 

* Duhm omits the subject, and, for SpTl, reads SplKl; but, if the text 
is to be changed, it is better, in harmony with v. 3, either simply to drop 
TT^V, Jehovah, or to replace it by llTI?!2r, Isaiah. 

f The text has rb«& pfeSH, ask deep, but fbvtib, above, requires T\bW, 
in the direction of Sheol. Comp. Henderson. 

\ The question has been raised, whether Isaiah really believed that any 
sign which Ahaz might designate would be granted (Lagarde), but it is 



17S 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 12-14 



12. Ahaz replies, I will not ask one, and adds, as an 
explanation of his refusal, nor will I prove Jehovah. To 

prove a person is to subject him to a test for the pur- 
pose of determining whether he is reliable. It always 
implies doubt, and thus becomes a reflection upon the 
character of the given person. The words of Ahaz 
were probably intended to convey the impression, that 
he declined the offer made him through fear of offend- 
ing Jehovah as did his forefathers at Massah (Ex. xvii. 
2, 7) ; but the real reason undoubtedly was, that, to ask 
for a sign would be equivalent to pledging himself to 
abandon a policy of his own for the one outlined by 
Isaiah. 

13. The prophet, indignant at the king's hypocrisy, 
now changes his tone. Hear, 0 house of David, he says,* 
for Ahaz was probably accompanied by other members 
of the royal family, Is it too little for you to weary men, 
the wiser men of the time, who, presumably, like Isaiah, 
had done what they could to prevent the king from 
throwing himself into the arms of Tiglath-pileser ; the 
patriotic party (viii. 16) ; that ye must also weary my 
God? by persistently rejecting his overtures. Compare 
the tone and phraseology of v. 1 1. 

14. The evident indignation of Isaiah must be taken 
into account in the interpretation of what follows. He 
proceeds : Therefore, because thou hast refused to be 

unworthy of consideration; for, to suppose that his offer was not a genuine 
one, is to accuse him of a shortsightedness or duplicity of which he was 
utterly incapable. 

* Here, although the subject is not expressed, there is no doubt that 
the speaker is Isaiah. If, therefore, it was Jehovah in v. 10, this is another 
instance of inconsistency like that in vi. 12. Duhm prefers to read 
and I said. 



VII. i 4 ] 



COMMENTS. 



179 



convinced, and thus virtually rejected the policy pro- 
posed, will the Lord himself give you a sign. If this 
sign is to be given on account of Ahaz' refusal to ask 
for one, its intent cannot be the same as that of the one 
offered but declined. It will be dictated by the feeling 
which expressed itself in the phrase my God, rather than 
by that which manifested itself in the thy God of v. 1 1 ; 
and be calculated to confound, rather than to comfort, 
the king. This being the case, the words that imme- 
diately follow cannot be taken as completely describing 
this sign, since in themselves they imply the favor of 
Jehovah ; but the rest of this verse must be connected 
with the next one, where the real attitude of the prophet 
and his God toward Ahaz becomes apparent : in other 
words, the sign is twofold. The first. part of it relates 
to the birth of Immanu-el. The boy's mother is called 
the young woman.* The mistaken notion that her 
identity is of consequence has given rise to a great 
variety of conjectures. The early Christians, as is well 
known, saw in her none other than the Virgin Mary, 
and their view is still current (Kay); | although it would 
seem self-evident that the birth of a child more than 

* The rendering virgin, although endorsed by the versions, is incorrect. 
The word TVdyti denotes a marriageable female, without especial reference 
to her character or condition. See Gen. xxiv. 43; Prv. xxx. 19. If Isaiah 
had intended to describe the person in question as a virgin, in the strict 
sense of the term, he would have used irO. See Gen. xxiv. 16; comp. 
Alexander. 

t A warrant for this view is sought in Mat. i. 22 f.; but an examination 
of the quotations from the Old Testament in this gospel will show, that 
the author did not pretend to use the passages quoted in their original 
sense, and that, therefore, the fact of his saying that the words of Isaiah 
were fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, proves nothing whatever with reference 
to their original meaning. 



ISO 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 14 



seven centuries after Ahaz' death could hardly be called 
a sign to the king and his contemporaries.* The Jews, 
on the other hand, have identified this young woman 
with the wife, either of Ahaz (Kimchi) or Isaiah (Aben 
Ezra), and some Christian scholars have adopted the 
latter opinion (Knobel). Unfortunately for both of these 
theories, the only women who are known to have borne 
the relation of wife to the men named, had, at the date 
of this prophecy, according to the chronology of the 
kings of Judah, ceased to be young women in the sense 
here intended (2 Kgs. xviii. 2 ; Isa. vii. 3) ; and there is 
nothing in the passage to require the creation of a rival 
for either of them. There is equally little evidence that 
the young woman is merely a personification for Zion 
(Orelli). There remains the interpretation according to 
which the young woman was one, in herself of no par- 
ticular importance, either actually present when the 
prophet spoke (Umbreit), or merely present to his im- 
agination (Duhm). In the latter case she might not 
only be any one of her class, but first one and then 
another ; in other words, the prophecy concerning her 
might meet with more than one fulfilment, so that one 
might say either the, or a, young woman, or even young 
women.\ At first sight it does not seem of much con- 
sequence which form of this fourth interpretation be 
adopted. On closer examination, however, the first will 
be found untenable: for, (1) it gives to the sign too 

* The difficulty is only shifted by the (wholly unwarranted) supposition 
that the prophets saw things without perspective (Delitzsch). 

t The Hebrew, like the English, article, is used to designate particular 
persons or things; but it is also employed when an individual chosen at 
will is to receive attention. See 2 Sam. xvii. 17; Ges. § 126, 4; Daw 
§ 21, e. 



VII. 14] 



COMMENTS. 



181 



much of the character of a mere wonder ; * (2) leaves 
room for doubt as to its reality ; and (3) robs it of much 
of its value as a proof of divine interference. On the 
other hand, as will appear, the second, according to 
which the young woman was an indefinite person, gives 
to the sign a breadth of application that makes it at 
once unmistakable and irresistible. Of this young 
woman Isaiah says that she shall now conceive, become 
pregnant,! aR d, m due time, bear a son, and call J his 
name Immanu-el. A literal translation of this name 
would be With-tis-God, a phrase, which, taken by itself, 
might be regarded as a description of the character of 
the child who was to bear it. It has, in fact, been so 
regarded. In other words, it is held to be an explicit 
statement of the divinity of Jesus. But, in the first 
place, With-us-God is not a correct rendering of Im- 
manu-el. The name is formed after the analogy of 
Hephzi-bah, which means, not My-delight-in-her, but My- 
delight-(is)-in-her. That the copula is to be supplied in 
the rendering of Immanu-el is clear from viii. 10, where 
the two words of which it is compounded, unmistakably 
used in allusion to this passage, cannot be put into Eng- 
lish without is. The name should therefore be translated 
God-is-with-us. But God is with us describes a state of 

* See Nagelsbach's ingenious, but repulsive, variation upon it. 

t The rendering hath conceived, is pregnant, though grammatical, is 
hardly allowable, since such a translation would furnish no clue to the 
date of the child's birth. 

% The word n&ip is pointed as an irregular form of the 3d fern. sing, 
of the perfect of $"*\p. See Ges. §74, 3, R. I. The Septuagint took it 
for the 2d mas. sing., and it is so pointed in a few codices. Neither is the 
true reading; which is plainly the participle, fl^Pp (Toy). See fH:?*; 
Ges. § 74, 3, R. 3; comp. Dillmann. 



1S2 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 14, 15 



things, not the nature of a person. Like Ben-oni (Gen. 
xxxv. 18), therefore, and I-kabod (1 Sam. iv. 21), it is to 
he interpreted as reflecting the conditions under which 
the child is to be born. In other words, Isaiah says, 
that, by the time a child, conceived at the date of his 
prophecy, is born, the condition of Judah will be so 
much improved that the mother of the child will be 
prompted to give him such a name as Immanu-el. Suck 
a name, be it observed ; for Isaiah, when he uttered the 
prophecy, probably did not mean to predict that any 
child would actually bear this exact name, but that cir- 
cumstances would be such as to suggest one of this 
sort. If, therefore, any young mother, in her gratitude 
for the deliverance of her country from the danger that 
had threatened it, called her first-born (say) Joshua 
{Jehovah is help), the prophecy was fulfilled. Indeed, 
one may go even farther and say, that, if such a deliver- 
ance was wrought, whether the gratitude of the people 
expressed itself in this or some other way, the prophet 
was vindicated.* 

15. Within a few months, says Isaiah, Jehovah will 
seem to have come to the rescue of Judah. This, how- 
ever, as has already been suggested, is, and can be, 
only a part of the sign with which he met the king's 
unbelief. There must be another side to it. This ex- 
pectation is realized in the words that follow. They 
constitute a statement like the one already made ; but, 
since an antithesis was clearly intended, it is proper to 

* To any one who should insist upon a stricter application of the words 
of the prophet, it would, perhaps, not be unfair to cite the fact, that 
Matthew does not hesitate to say, that the name Jesus (Joshua) was given 
to the son of Mary in fulfilment of them (Mat. i. 22). 



VII. i 5 ] 



COMMENTS. 



183 



connect the two in such a way as to make this fact 
apparent. One may therefore, instead of Lo, the young 
woman shall conceive, etc., say, Lo, the young woman 
that shall conceive, etc., or even, Though a young woman 
conceive, and bear a son, and call his name Immanu-el, 
curds and honey shall he eat. The mention of these 
two articles of food was once supposed to indicate that 
the youth of the child was to be spent in the midst of 
plenty (Vitringa) ; but it is now generally admitted that 
they are here, neither, as in Ex. hi. 8, symbols of fer- 
tility, nor the customary food of infants (Kay), but that 
they imply the devastation of the country, and the re- 
duction of its inhabitants to the necessity of subsisting 
on the most primitive fare. By curds are meant the 
curdled milk with which Abraham refreshed his visitors 
(Gen. xviii. 8), and of which, under the name leben, the 
Arabs of the present day consume large quantities (Van 
Lennep, BL, 403 f.); and by honey, the wild honey, 
still abundant in Palestine (Tristram, NHB, 322 ff.), on 
which John the Baptist largely subsisted while in the 
desert (Mat. iii. 4). These are to be Immanu-el's meat; 
not at first, for the state of things existing at his birth 
is to be of some duration ; but when, or by the time 
that,* he hath learned to reject the bad f and prefer the 
good. There can be little doubt, that the knowledge to 
reject the bad and prefer the good is equivalent to the 

* Several of the versions, and some modern scholars (Bredenkamp), 
take h in the final sense of that ; but such a rendering, if it were intel- 
ligible, would be forbidden by the entire context. The child has no sig- 
nificance in himself. His birth, according to v. 14, merely marks a date; 
and so, here, must his arrival at the first stage in his development. The 
translation until (Reuss) is equally objectionable. See x. 3; Gen. vii. 4. 

f On the construction of 1TO DIKti, see Ges. § 113, I, c and e. 



184 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 15, 16 



knowledge of good and evil, in one or the other of the 
two senses in which this expression is used in the Old 
Testament ; but it is difficult to decide whether Isaiah 
here means the ability to make moral distinctions 
(Gen. iii.), or simply the capacity for choosing one's 
own food (Deu. i. 39). The former view is the more 
common (Delitzsch), but the latter seems the more de- 
fensible. (1) It has in its favor the description of the 
child's diet; (2) it brings v. 16 into harmony with viii. 
4; and (3) it does justice to the general impression 
of both chapters, to the effect that the chastisement of 
Judah is to follow comparatively closely upon the de- 
struction of their enemies. On the whole, then, it is 
safest to suppose that the prophet had in mind the 
earlier of the two ages mentioned. At this tender age, 
upon being weaned, he who seemed born to enjoy pros- 
perity and abundance will become acquainted with 
poverty and privation, living on curds and honey like 
other survivors of a devastating war.* 

16. for introduces the interpretation of the sign prom- 
ised, or rather threatened. See v. 7. There follows 
an undisguised statement : before the arrival of the boy 
whose birth is predicted in v. 14 at the age indicated 
in v. 15, in other words, within three or four years 
(2 Mac. vii. 27), the soil, or country, whose two kings, 
Resin and Pekah, thou dreadest, shall be forsaken. At 
first sight, there seems to be a discrepancy between this 
statement and the more figurative representation of 
v. 14, but the difficulty is not serious. It disappears on 

* It has already been shown that the sign would not be complete with- 
out this fifteenth verse. This being granted, there is no difficulty in seeing 
Isaiah's hand in it. Comp. Cheyne (IBI). 



VII. i6, 17] 



COMMENTS. 



185 



noticing that, in v. 14, it is the immediate effect upon 
Judah, while here it is the ultimate consequences to the 
allies, of the interference of Assyria, that Isaiah is de- 
scribing. There would naturally be an interval between 
them. The prophet says, that, at the longest, it will be 
one of two or three years.* 

17. He next proceeds to explain the other side of the 
sign. Jehovah, whose counsel has been rejected, will 
bring upon thee, and upon thy people, because they are 
like-minded, and upon thy father's house, the Davidic 
dynasty, days such as have not come upon them, since, 
in the reign of Rehoboam (1 Kgs. xii. 1 ff.), Ephraim, 
and all the rest of the tribes, except Benjamin, separated 
from Judah, and organized the kingdom of Israel. That 
was a sad day for the house of David and the Hebrew 
people ; but not more calamitous than the one that is 
coming. No date is given, but, from a comparison of 
vv. 15 and 17, it would appear that the prophet expected 
the calamity predicted to follow close upon the over- 
throw of the allied kingdoms, f 

This, then, is the twofold sign given to Ahaz : that, 
when a child, conceived soon after the interview, was 
born, the country would have been relieved from its 
present danger; but that, within two or three more 
years, a greater would have overtaken it. It is some- 
times objected, that, on such an interpretation, the so- 

* Buhl omits the relative clause, whose two kings thou dreadest, and 
interprets the remainder as a prediction of the abandonment of Judah. 
The objection to so doing is, that Isaiah does not seem to have expected 
his own country to be so thoroughly devastated. 

f This verse, also, is rejected by some of the later critics; but, if v. 15 
is genuine, this one must be retained, except the phrase, the king of 
Assyria, which is a wholly superfluous gloss. 



186 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 17 



called sign was, after all, in no proper sense a sign to 
Ahaz. The objector, however, overlooks two things. 
The first is the change of treatment required by the 
king after his refusal of a sign calculated to strengthen 
his faith in Jehovah. He would not be convinced. A 
sign such as, according to 2 Kgs. xx. 11, was afterward 
granted to Hezekiah, therefore, would have been wasted 
upon him. It should also, in the second place, be re- 
membered, that, in the Old Testament, a sign is not 
always a pledge, but is sometimes a proof. There are 
several examples of this latter usage, but the one most 
to the point is in Ex. iii. 12, where Jehovah says to 
Moses, " I will surely be with thee ; and this shall be 
to thee a sign that I myself sent thee : when thou 
bringest the people forth from Egypt, ye shall serve 
God in this mountain." In this case the sign is the 
worship of Jehovah at Sinai. The event is foretold, 
that, when it occurs, it may convince Moses, that he 
who sent him on his mission to Egypt was none other 
than the God of his fathers. See also 2 Kgs. xix. 29. 
The sign actually given to Ahaz was of this sort. As 
soon as relief from the fear of the allies came, he would 
be reminded of his interview with Isaiah ; and when the 
second part of the prophecy was fulfilled, he would be 
convinced that the prophet actually spoke for God. 
Then and thereafter, any child born during the respite, 
whose name reflected the circumstances of his birth, 
would recall Isaiah's divinely inspired foresight and his 
own short-sighted obstinacy.* Comp. GASmith. 

* For a more complete discussion of this prophecy, see an article en- 
titled "Immanu-el; Prophecy and Fulfillment," in the Andover Review 
for April, 1891. See also Porter, JBL, 1895, l 9& 



VII. i 7 , i8] 



COMMENTS. 



187 



There is abundant evidence that the prophecy of 
Isaiah was fulfilled ; for the Hebrew historians state, 
that, at this juncture, Tiglath-pileser attacked, first Israel 
(2 Kgs. xv. 29), and then Syria (2 Kgs. xvi. 1), and 
carried many of both peoples into captivity ; while the 
Assyrian king testifies, that all this happened within 
three years of the date at which the words must have 
been spoken. For details see Intr. Stud. II. The 
chastisement of Judah did not follow as soon as was 
expected ; but it came at last, and, when it came, the 
Assyrians, as the prophet had predicted, were the in- 
struments of its infliction. 

The remainder of the chapter describes more in 
detail 

7. THE DEVASTATION OF JUDAH (VV. I8-25). It 

consists of a collection of Isaianic sayings on the sub- 
ject, most of which are probably of nearly the same 
date with, although they do not belong to, the interview 
with Ahaz.* 

18. On the phrase in that day, which occurs no fewer 
than four times in this paragraph, see on ii. n. The 
figure of v. 26 is repeated, but this time Jehovah will 
shrill to the fly that is at the end of the rivers of Egypt, 
as well as the bee that is in the land of Assyria. By 
the fly are meant the Ethiopians, for they controlled 
Egypt while Isaiah prophesied. The rivers, therefore, 
are the tributaries of the Nile in the remote South. In 
734 b.c, however, there was little reason to apprehend 
trouble from this quarter, the Ethiopians being fully 

* Hackmann (ZJ, 66 f.) thinks that it is the fortunes of Israel, rather 
than those of Judah, which are the subject of these verses. 



188 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 18-21 



occupied in maintaining their supremacy on the lower 
Nile (Rawlinson, SAE, 317 ff . ; Meyer, GA, 427 f.); 
which fact makes it probable that this verse and the 
one following belong to a later date, when Hezekiah 
was appealing to Tirhaka against his Assyrian master. 
See xxx. 1 f.* 

19. The Ethiopian and Assyrian invaders shall come 
and overspread the land, as flies and bees settle ... in 
the yawning water-courses, the wadies with lofty, pre- 
cipitous banks, running east and west from the plateau 
called " the highlands of Juclah " (GASmith, HGIIL, 
263, 287, 289); the clefts, natural caverns in the lime- 
stone cliffs ; the thorn-trees, with which the country is 
still dotted ; and the outlying pastures : they will swarm 
in the land. See Jud. vi. 5. 

20. The figure is now changed to one suggested by 
Ahaz' appeal to Tiglath-pileser. The former had 
stripped his palace and robbed the temple to hire the 
latter to invade Israel (2 Kgs. xvi. 8); Jehovah now pro- 
poses to shave with the same razor, hired beyond the 
River Euphrates, both head and trunk (lit. head, and 
hair of the feet), the entire (figurative) body. This 
means, of course, that Juclah is to be entirely overrun 
by the enemy. The additional statement, yea, even the 
beard shall it remove, indicates that the invasion is to 
be to the last degree humiliating. See 2 Sam. x. 4.7 

21. The extent of the devastation to be expected is 
illustrated by an example, if a man, a survivor of the 

* Duhm omits the relative clauses, both of them, as glosses, and thus 
brings the verse into harmony with the context. So, also, Cheyne (IB/). 

f The explanation, with the king of Assyria, is altogether unnecessary, 
and therefore, without doubt, another gloss. 



■ ■pp 

VII. 21-25] COMMENTS. 189 

invasion, keep, having saved them from seizure and 
slaughter by the enemy, a heifer and two sheep, the 
smallest remnant of his former wealth in cattle; 

22. he will yet have an abundance of . . . milk. His 
dairy will yield abundantly, for one so small, on account 
of the wide range over which the cattle can feed, and 
the abundance will seem the greater on account of the 
smallness of the number left to share the curds made 
from the milk. There will, indeed, be curds enough, 
and honey ; but these will be the sole sustenance, so 
completely will the land be stripped, of those who are 
left, the child Immanu-el among them, in the land ; 
scattered through it (v. 8). 

23. The vineyards will have entirely disappeared, 
even the choicest; for every place where there are 
now a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, 
six hundred dollars, or about sixty cents apiece (Riehm, 
HBA, art. Sekcl)* there will then be nothing but thorns 
and briers. f 

24. To these thorny thickets men will go with the 
bow and arrows, % the weapons commonly used in hunt- 
ing (Ragozin, SA, 405 ff.), in search of game. On the 
rapidity with which wild animals multiplied under such 
circumstances, see 2 Kgs. xvii. 25. 

25. The vineyards of Palestine were usually on the 
slopes of the hills (v. 1). Hence it is probable that 
the hills here mentioned are the hills on which the vine- 

* This means only that the shekel contained 14.55 grammes, or about a 
sixth more silver than the American half-dollar, 
f The final !r!T, shall be, is redundant. 

X The Hebrew order is arrows and the bow. See also the phrase bad or 
good (Gen. xxiv. 50). 



190 



ISAIAH. 



[VII. 25-VIII. 1 



yards just described are situated, and that this verse is 
but a variation upon the theme of the two preceding. 
It ought, therefore, to harmonize with them. It does, 
if the remainder means, that these hills, now digged 
with the mattock, most carefully cultivated, whither, on 
that account, the fear of thorns and briers cometh not, 
shall be a range (lit. place to send) for oxen, and a place 
for sheep to trample ; shall become pasture.* 

The interview between Isaiah and Ahaz, though held 
in a field, was comparatively private. If it had been a 
satisfactory one, the prophet might have awaited the 
issue in silence. Its failure compelled him to make the 
substance of his communication to the king public. His 
message to the people is associated with another sym- 
bolical child. 

ifi) The Boy Maher-shalal-hash-baz (viii. 1-8). — He 
first repeats his prophecy concerning 

a. THE OVERTHROW OF THE ALLIES (vv. I -4). I. He 

claims divine authority for it : Then, after the meeting 
with Ahaz, and probably not long after it, said Jehovah 
to me (comp. vii. 3), Take thee a large tablet, f made of 
metal, and suitable for exposure in some public place, 
and write thereon in plain script (lit. with a mortal's 
stylus), so that every one, even the simplest, can read it 
(Hab. ii. 2). Comp. Nagelsbach. This is what he is 

* The rendering, thou shall not co??ie thither for fear of briers and thorns 
(RV\ though grammatically defensible (2 Sam. xxiii. 3), is objectionable, 
because too difficult to reconcile with the context. Comp. Delitzsch. The 
translation, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns, as a 
stimulus to husbandry (Dillmann), is altogether too far-fetched. 

f The word used is the same that is rendered mirror in iii. 23. 



VIII. i-3] 



COMMENTS. 



191 



instructed to write: To, i.e., relating to, — Swift booty, 
speedy prey.* The words are a condensed prophecy, 
and the tablet inscribed with them is a witness to all 
who read them, that Isaiah has foretold the approaching 
destruction — of what or whom? The tablet does not 
say; but, as there was no object in keeping the matter 
secret, everybody must have known that Syria and Israel 
were intended. If, as seems probable, Ahaz had not yet 
despatched his messenger to Kalah, it may not have been 
so clear how these kings were to be overthrown. 

2. The prophet is further instructed to call trusty 
witnesses to the fact that he has made the prediction 
inscribed on the tablet, f The witnesses are named. 
The first is Uriah the priest, without doubt the same 
who afterward superintended the changes made in the 
temple at Ahaz' dictation (2 Kgs. xvi. 10 ff.), a partisan 
of the king or a time-server, but, by virtue of his position, 
a man of influence, and therefore a valuable witness. 
The second is Zechariah, son of Jeberekiah, who has 
been identified with the author of Zee. ix.-xi. (S David- 
son, 10 T, III. 332), or the Asaphite of 2 Chr. xxix. 13 ; 
but there is little to be said for either conjecture. 

3. Isaiah also records, that, about this time, % the 
prophetess, so called, not because she herself possessed 

* Tift is an abbreviated form for "iHfcfc (Zep. i. 14) ; tPtt, also, is a parti- 
ciple used adjectively. 

f The text has nTUKl, and I (Jehovah) will summon. The Vulgate 
reads and I (Isaiah) summoned, i.e., fTVUKI, and some modern interpreters 
(Bredenkamp) have adopted this reading. Better than either is HTL'm*, 
the one here followed, which also has the support of the Septuagint and 
the Peshita. Comp. Orelli. 

X This is the natural interpretation of the waw consecutive with which 
the verse begins, and it is supported by the context. Comp. Duhm. 



.192 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 3, 4 



the gift of prophecy (Nagelsbach), but because she 
was the wife of the prophet, conceived ; and that, in due 
time, she bore a son. Jehovah then commanded, that, 
while others were giving to their children such names as 
Immanu-el s this boy should be named Maher-shalal-hash- 
baz, Swift-booty-speedy-prey, and thus made a fourth 
witness to the prediction on whose fulfilment his father 
had staked his reputation as a prophet. 

4. The prediction was, at the same time, made reason- 
ably clear and definite. Its final form was, before tie 
lad hath learned to cry Father, and Mother, begun to 
talk, the wealth of Damascus and . . . Samaria shall be 
borne off, both cities will have been captured, by the 
king of Assyria. If, now, as above suggested, this child, 
like Immanu-el, was born about nine months after the 
interview with Ahaz, Isaiah would seem, meanwhile, not 
only to have persisted in expecting the overthrow of the 
allies, but to have seen reason for expecting it sooner 
than he originally (vii. 15) predicted. The reason is not 
far to seek. Before the birth of either of the children 
Tiglath-pileser had made his expedition of 734 B.C., 
seriously crippling Israel, and withdrawing only to make 
preparations for a more vigorous and effective prose- 
cution of the war. It is not strange, therefore, that, 
when the prophet was called upon to name his child, he 
not only gave him the name suggested to him, but, 
becoming "very bold," declared that the event signified 
would occur within a year. The war actually lasted 
longer than he anticipated, the Assyrian king, as already 
stated, making two campaigns in Syria ; but the dis- 
crepancy is not important. For Tiglath-pileser's own 
account of his operations, see Intr. Stud. II. 



VIII. 5, 6] 



COMMENTS. 



193 



In chapter vii. Isaiah warned Ahaz that the conquest 
of Syria and Israel would but prepare the way for the 
subjugation of Judah by the Assyrians. On this point, 
also, he remains as severe as in his original utterances, 
for his second prediction concerning the fate of the 
allies is followed by a description of 

j3. THE INUNDATION OF JUDAH (vv. 5~8). 5. When 

Isaiah had fulfilled the instructions given him with refer- 
ence to the tablet, Jehovah spake to him further, pre- 
sumably on the same occasion. See vii. 10. 

6. The message begins with an accusation against 
this people. The meaning of this phrase in the present 
connection is disputed. Some assert that it denotes 
Israel in the narrower sense (Nagelsbach); others that 
it includes Israel and Syria (Henderson), or Israel and 
Judah (Delitzsch); but the majority of modern exegetes 
consider it a designation for Judah. This last is, with- 
out doubt, the correct interpretation ; for, since it is the 
Jews who are to be punished, it must be they who have 
offended. There are apparently two counts. In the 
first place, they despise the water of Shilloah, i.e., the 
water by which the Pool of Shilloah (Neh. iii. 15: 
Shelah\ at or near the mouth of the Tyropcean valley, 
was fed. The pool was probably near the present Pool 
of Siloam, just below the end of the tunnel by which the 
water of the Virgin's Fountain (Gihon) is conveyed from 
the Kidron, into the Tyropoean valley; and the water 
that floweth softly, the small, hidden, and noiseless 
stream that still flows through the tunnel.* This stream, 

* The present Pool of Siloam is fifty-three feet long, eighteen wide, and 
nineteen deep. The tunnel, which is cut through the solid limestone of 
the hill Ophel, is about one thousand seven hundred and fifty feet long, and 



194 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 6 



so modest, yet in times of danger so precious to the in- 
habitants of Jerusalem, is here a symbol for the unseen 
and mysterious, but real and efficient, Presence (Ps. xlvi. 
5/4) whom the prophet is seeking to persuade his people 
to trust, but whom, in spite of his efforts, they ignore. 
There follows what, at first sight, seems a separate 
charge, that they despair * on account of Resin and the 
son of Remaliah.t It is really a more specific statement 

two wide. Its height varies from less than three to about eighteen feet, 
and it is very crooked. See Robinson, BRP, I. 337 ff.; Wilson and 
Warren, RJ, 239 ff. In 1880, there was found, near the lower end of the 
tunnel, an inscription, since destroyed, of which the following is a transla- 
tion : 

. . . the piercing. Now this was the manner of the piercing. While 
yet . . . 

the pick one toward another; and while there were yet three cubits to 

. . . the voice of one call- 
ing to another. For there was ZDH in the rock on the right . . . And 

on the day of the 

piercing the excavators smote one over against another, pick over 

against pick. Then flowed 

the water from the spring to the pool, a thousand two hundred cubits; 

and a hun- 
dred cubits was the height of the rock over the heads of the excavators. 

For the original see Driver, NBS, xv. f. The work is generally attributed 
to Hezekiah, and 2Chr. xxxii. 30 seems to favor such an opinion; but the 
parallel passage in 2 Kgs. (xx. 20) probably refers to the reservoir now 
called the Pool of Mamilla, on the west of the city, and the aqueduct by 
which the water is conveyed from it to the so-called Pool of Hezekiah in 
the city. See Stade, G VI, I. 593 f. 

* The words despise and despair reproduce a paronomasia in the original. 

f The text has {IWfcl, which can only be rendered rejoice (Orelli). 
Thus rendered, however, it does not harmonize with the context. Hence 
it has been suggested that tL'li^ft is but another form of the infinitive 
construct of DEE (x. 18), dissolve, despond (Hitzig). The suggestion is a 
valuable one, but it does not entirely meet the difficulties in the case. The 
fact is that the construction . . . DKtt "O JIT is objectionable. It 



VIII. 6-8] 



COMMENTS. 



195 



of the one already made. In other words, Isaiah ac- 
cuses his people of despising Jehovah, and showing it, 
first by being terrified at the approach of Resin and 
Pekah (vii. 2), and finally by turning to Tiglath-pileser 
instead of him for assistance. 

7. The appeal to the Assyrian king explains the pun- 
ishment threatened. Because they have put their trust 
in him and his armies, the din of whose movements is 
"like the noise of mighty waters" (xvii. 12), therefore 
will Jehovah bring up against them, from Assyria, this 
noisy, turbulent River, this human Euphrates.* Like the 
real Euphrates, when the snow on the mountains among 
which it rises melts in the summer, at his command this 
power shall wholly outgrow its channels, become too 
great to be confined within its present limits ; and over- 
flow all its banks, undertake unprecedented conquests. 

8. It will not stop with the overflow of Syria and 
Israel ; it shall also invade Judah, whose people now 
think themselves safe from its ravages, and overwhelm 
it, | devastating it from end to end, to the neck, until it 

is probable that the original text was DiDEil . . . or DK£3 JIT 

iDSttl . . . (Eze. xxv. 6) ; or, since an infinitive of the latter form is rare 
(Bot. § 1 155, 6), and a succession of infinitives after [IT equally infre- 
quent, while an infinitive followed by a finite verb is a common construc- 
tion, ^EDftl . . . JIP. For the mode, see xxxvii. 29; for the tense, 
Am. v. 11; and for the number, Eze. xxv. 12. See also Ges. § 112, 3, 5. 
The retention of flK after IDEft seems justified by Job xxxi. 34, but ^Sft 
would be the usual construction. Comp. Dillmann. 

* The figure is explained as meaning, the king of Assyria, and all his 
glory ; but the explanation, like others of the same kind already noticed, 
is superfluous, and therefore doubtless a gloss from the hand of an anxious 
reader or copyist. 

t The omission of the connective before flood, is best explained by 
supposing the verb a gloss. Comp. Dri. §§ 147, 132. 



196 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 8 



is all but destroyed, yea, says the prophet, and the 
irony of the passage culminates in these final words, the 
stretch of its flanks, the extent of the advancing flood, 
shall fill the breadth, from border to border, of thy land, 
0 Immanu-el, the land of whose temporary deliverance 
Immanu-el was the sign. Immanu-el, then, is here a 
representative of the generation, born just as Judah 
emerged from the Syrian crisis, the omens at whose 
birth are to be reversed before they have finished the 
first stage of their existence.* 

The faith of Ahaz, and most of his people, was a faith 
in man and his ability. The prophet has shown what 

* The interpretation given to these last words is required by vii. 14 f. 
It also harmonizes with the context. Those who adopt a different idea of 
Immanu-el have difficulty in explaining why he should appear in this 
prophecy. The difficulty thus experienced has given rise to attempts to 
avoid it. The latest suggestion is, that 1312!?, Immanu-el, be dropped 
as a gloss (Duhm), or attached to the following verse (Cheyne) ; but 
neither of these ways of disposing of the word is satisfactory, for the follow- 
ing reasons: Verses 9 and 10 are a fragment, foreign to their present 
context. This is generally admitted. Such being the case, they must have 
been removed from some other place to the one that they now occupy. 
Moreover, there must have been some reason why they were placed where 
they are, and not in some other connection. If, now, the present text be 
left undisturbed, one can see a reason for attaching these verses to w. 5-8 
that ought to have weight, especially with those who demand a change : viz. 
that both passages end with furnishing a striking example of the 

application of the principle of catchwords, which Cornill (ZA IV, 1884, 
83 ff.) claims to have traced through the entire Isaianic collection. See 
Cheyne, IB I, xxv. On the other hand, if the of v. 8 be omitted, 

or, as well as that of v. 10, attached to the inserted passage, there remains 
no apparent reason for its insertion. These considerations, added to the 
fact that neither of the proposed changes would improve the sense of either 
passage, make it seem best to retain the present text in its present arrange- 
ment. 



VIII. 9, io] 



COMMENTS. 



197 



comes of it ; that at first it seems well-founded, but that 
in the end it proves a delusion. The rest of this chap- 
ter and a part of the next deal with a faith of another 
kind, 

(2) Faith in God (viii. 9-ix. 6/7). — The transition is 
made by the introduction of a brief challenge (yv. 9 f.), 
which, as has already been explained, originally be- 
longed in a different connection, but which has enough 
in common with the verses that immediately follow to 
warrant one in including it under the same heading, 

(a) The Only Dci7iger (viii. 9-15). — 9. It begins with 
a solemn summons, Attend,* 0 peoples ! The peoples 
addressed are also called the ends of the earth. They 
cannot, therefore, well be the forces of Resin and Pekah, 
but, as the tone and the phraseology indicate, must be 
the same that are described in xvii. 12, the nations 
represented in the Assyrian army. Isaiah, with the 
recklessness that characterized his attitude toward Sen- 
nacherib (xxxvii. 22 fL), defies him and his host. Gird 
yourselves ! he cries; gird yourselves, for war, but to be 
confounded by a startling and terrible reverse. 

10. Their armies will be useless. Their scheme, there- 
fore, the scheme to destroy the last remnant of the 
chosen people (xxxvi. 16 f.), and thus defeat the purpose 
of Jehovah in their creation, will be planned only to be 
shattered ; because, says the prophet, God is with us. 
These are the same words in which the end of the 

* The text has 11?"!, rage ; but the Septuagint have the equivalent of *IH, 
know, and this, or HJfttr, hear, \s the reading required by the parallel line, 
give ear, etc.; which, moreover, should be brought into immediate con- 
nection with this one by the omission of the intervening phrase, but to be 
confounded. See i. 2, 10; xxviii. 23. 



19S 



ISAIAH, 



[VIII. 10-13 



Syrian crisis was celebrated, but they are not used here 
in the same sense as in vii. 14. There they were a mere 
outburst of popular enthusiasm over the temporary suc- 
cess of a short-sighted and cowardly policy ; here they 
are the confession, in the midst of a greater crisis, of 
the sublimest confidence in God, and in the ultimate 
deliverance of those who wait for him. There they 
were the idle boast of the doomed masses ; here they 
are the inspiring watchword of the Israel of the future.* 
n. The remaining verses of the paragraph have a 
similar tone, but they are much earlier, belonging to 
the date of the Syrian, rather than the Assyrian, inva- 
sion. In the midst of the commotion caused by the 
attempt of Resin and Pekah upon Jerusalem, Isaiah 
received another revelation. This came to him with 
mighty power, an overwhelming influence of the Spirit 
(Eze. i. 3 ; iii. 14; etc.), to warn f him and his followers 
not to go in the way of his erring countrymen : this 
people, he calls them, as Jehovah did mv. 5. 

12. The people were saying, with bated breath, of the 
design of Resin and Pekah, A plot ! meaning thereby 
an irresistible combination against Judah. His instruc- 
tions were, fear not what they fear, men and their in- 
trigues, however cunning and powerful (vii. 4 ff.) ; 

13. they can be resisted ; but Of Jehovah of Hosts, — ■ 
the name has a peculiar fitness in this connection, — 
shall ye beware, % because he is irresistible, and opposi- 

* Comp. Porter, JBL, 1895, 3&> wno refers vv. 9 f . to the post-Exilic 
period. 

f The form TlD 11 is an imperfect of the first (Kal) stem. See Hos. x. 
10. On the construction, see Ges. § 107, 4, a (3). 

\ The text has WIpD, shall ye sanctify ; but this reading is so tame 
and unnatural that it will have to be abandoned. The substitution of tSHp, 



VIII. 13-15] 



COMMENTS. 



199 



tion to him can only result in the destruction of his 
adversary ; he, and he alone, shall be the object of your 
fear. 

14. The command to fear Jehovah alone is equivalent 
to an exhortation to trust him, and implies a promise 
that he will protect those who take this attitude toward 
him. Isaiah leaves all this to be supplied, and proceeds 
with a statement of the result of ignoring him.* To 
those who do this he will be a stone to trip on, a cause 
of disaster, for both houses of Israel, because both alike 
ignore him : the one by attempting to overthrow the 
Davidic kingdom, and the other by seeking foreign as- 
sistance in maintaining it. The warning, however, is 
intended especially for Judah ; hence separate mention 
is made of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, f 

15. The double figure of the stone and the snare 
denotes the various means by which Jehovah will inter- 
vene, to their disadvantage, in the affairs of his people. 

holy, for *Wp, plot, in the preceding verse (Bredenkamp) does not help 
matters. The T£"p of v. 12 must be retained, and HZTHpn changed to 
ITtTpn, shall ye make a conspirator, i.e., treat as such ; in other words, as 
above, beware of (Duhm). True, the causative stem of is not else- 
where found; but this, in view of the originality of Isaiah, is not a serious 
objection. The error which produced the present text is explained by the 
strangeness of the original word, and its likeness to the familiar one sub- 
stituted for it. 

* In the text the implied antithesis is made explicit by the insertion of 
a sanctuary. It is better, therefore, to regard this addition to the 
text as editorial, rather than to explain it (Duhm) as a copyist's error 
occasioned by the tPpl^b, a springe, toward the end of the verse. On 
the accentuation of the verse, see Wickes, HP A, 134. 

f This interpretation is based on the supposition that the text is correct. 
Perhaps, however, the phrase for both houses of Israel should be omitted. 
The verse would then consist of two lines of nearly equal length, both 
referring to Judah, as v. 13 would lead one to expect. 



200 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 15, 16 



The result will be, that many shall thereby, by these 
means,* stumble, meet misfortune, or, in the language 
of the conjoined figures, fall, over the stone, and be 
broken, and be snared, like a bird, and taken. Comp. 
xxviii. 16; Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. 8. 

Isaiah believed that Jehovah would finally reveal him- 
self as the deliverer of those who feared him. This is 
clear from the care he takes, in speaking of the future 
of his people, not to predict their utter destruction. In 
v. 8 the flood to which the Assyrian invasion is likened 
reaches only to the neck ; and in v. 1 5 many, but not 
all, are to stumble and perish. But the prophet saw, 
that even those who were finally delivered would have 
to endure great suffering, before the divine purpose 
could be fulfilled. The next paragraph is intended to 
prepare his followers for 

(b) The Coming Darkness (viii. 16-23). — l6 - He pro- 
poses to commit to them his testimony concerning the 
things that are to come. It is in the form of a roll, 
which he will sealf against the time to which it refers. 
How much the roll contained, there seems to be no 
means of learning ; but one may assume, that the proph- 
ecies in which Immanu-el and Maher-shalal-hash-baz 
figure were among its contents. Those to whom it is 
committed he calls his disciples, such as had been 

* This is the natural interpretation. It does not require the change of 
to 13 (Cheyne). The rendering among them, i.e., Israel, or Judah 
(Delitzsch), though possible, is less satisfactory. If such had been the 
prophet's meaning, he would naturally have said ZZ Z'Z*. 

f For Dinn, the imperative, read £TH, the infinitive absolute. For the 
form "'^ see Ges. §67, R. 2; on the construction, v. 5; I Kgs. xxii. 30; 
Ges. §H3,4,Mj Dav. § SS, b. 



VIII. i6-ig] 



COMMENTS. 



201 



taught by him respecting the purpose of Jehovah, and 
led to acquiesce in it. Comp. Orelli. 

17. This done, he will wait for Jehovah, first to vindi- 
cate him and them, and then to deliver the remnant of 
his people ; * although, for the present, he hideth his 
face, withdraws his favor, from the house of Jacob, the 
Hebrew people. 

18. He intends to remain silent, but he does not 
expect to be without influence, since he and his children 
are all signs and tokens of great significance in Israel. 
Maher-shalal-hash-baz threatened destruction to those 
who rejected Jehovah ; while Shear-yashub promised 
deliverance to such as made him their refuge ; and the 
name of Isaiah himself {Jehovah helped) furnished an 
inspiring watchword for the loyal remnant. Comp. 
Bredenkamp ; see also Heb. ii. 13. These witnesses 
are from Jehovah of Hosts, the mighty, who dwelleth in 
Mount Zion (Am. i. 2); within easy reach of those who 
desire his protection. 

19. The prophet now explains the use to be made of 
the roll that has been, or is to be, prepared. It is to 
serve as a source of guidance in the approaching crisis. 
Something of the kind will be needed. People will be 
running hither and thither trying to learn the meaning 
of their misfortunes. The multitude will betake them- 
selves to false prophets. Isaiah warns his disciples not 
to follow them to the necromancers, those who, like the 
witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii. /ff.), professed to have 
power over the spirits of the dead, to make them reveal 
things beyond the knowledge of the living ; and the 

* That the subject is the same in this as in the preceding verse appears 
from the fact that the pronoun *21\t>, /, is not expressed. 



202 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 19, 20 



soothsayers, those who, like the maid mentioned in Acts 
xvi. 16, were supposed to be possessed of a divining 
spirit (Riehm, NBA, art. Wahrsager)\ that chirp and 
mutter, make the piping, or the hollow tones attributed 
to ghosts and employed by ventriloquists. Two reasons 
are given. It is disloyal to Jehovah: should not a people 
inquire of their God ? Moreover, it is ridiculous. How 
can the living, still permitted the untrammelled use of 
their faculties, expect to learn anything that they do 
not know from the dead, confined, as these are, in the 
gloomy caverns of Sheol ? See Job xiv. 21. 

20. Those who really desire the truth will turn To the 
teaching, the inspired utterances of the prophet, in the 
written testimony deposited with his disciples. On so 
doing they will find that the teaching and the testimony 
tell of, describe, the like of this state, a situation corre- 
sponding to the one then existing; one to which there is 
no dawn, in which those who have deserted Jehovah find 
no comfort or encouragement. The effect of this dis- 
covery on those who make it will be to give them in- 
creased faith in their master, and help them to wait for 
the better things that Jehovah has commissioned him to 
promise them.* 

* The passage has been given a great variety of renderings. The most 
interesting are the following : 

If they speak not according to this word, there shall be no dawn to 
them (Henderson). 

Surely they will so say, to whom there is no dawn (Dillmann). 

Or will they not so speak who are without dawn (Delitzsch) ? 

Will they not yet so speak? Because no morning dawns for him, one 
goeth, etc. (Bredenkamp). 

They are all unsatisfactory. The fundamental error in them is, that in 
every case the subject of "HE^, say, tell of, is supposed to be those from 
whom Jehovah has withdrawn his favor. Such an interpretation is for- 



VIII. 21, 22] 



COMMENTS. 



203 



21. The prophet now proceeds to describe the effect 
on those who have no faith in Jehovah of the state of 
things to which he has referred, they shall pass through 
the land, seeking relief (Am. viii. 1 1 f.), but finding none, 
and therefore downcast, discouraged, as well as hungry; 
and when they realize their condition, instead of being 
subdued by their sufferings, they will become enraged, 
and curse their king and their God ; abandon everything 
like reverence (i Kgs. xxi. io). Comp. Delitzsch.* 

There will be no help for them ; for, whether they 
turn upward, with the inconsistency of desperation 
hoping against hope for divine aid, 22. or look earth- 
ward, for human assistance, — whichever way they turn, 
they will find trouble and darkness, yea, a gloom with- 
out brightness, utter distress. See Am. v. 20. f 

bidden by the entire context. In the first place, it detaches the preceding 
exhortation from that of v. 19, thus destroying a perfect antithesis and 
weakening the force of the passage; and, secondly, it attaches to the sub- 
ject as a modifier a relative clause, "~\TW *h "Iw'X, to which there is no 
dawn, which was evidently not intended to serve any such purpose. Vio- 
lence of this sort is avoided by making the subject the teaching and the 
testimony. The exhortation to consult them then remains in the mouth 
of Isaiah, where it belongs, and the relative clause becomes a (needed) 
description of the character of their contents. On DSS, in the sense of 
surely, see v. 9; Ges. § 149, R. c. 

* The last two (Hebrew) words of this verse belong to the next. 

f The text reads, literally, and lo, trouble and darkness, the darkness of 
distress, and gloom dispersed. This makes too long a line. The attempt 
has been made to get rid of the excess by rendering the last two (He- 
brew) words, but the darkness shall be dispersed (Dillmann), and con- 
necting them with what follows; but, unfortunately, there is as little room 
for them in the next line as in this one. A better remedy is to omit 
np'Si originally probably Hp12£ the darkness of oppression, as a 

gloss explanatory of the preceding word, darkness. This done, the verse 
will be of the proper length; but, if no further change be made, the last 
two words will still prove troublesome. The favorite rendering for them 



204 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 23 



23 (ix. 1). It is more than probable that this prophecy 
closed with v. 22, and that the remaining verse is a con- 
siderably later addition.* It consists of two parts. The 
first is plainly an explanation of the gloss, the darkness 
of oppression, by the same hand, in the preceding verse. 
For, it says, — is not the land (lit. she) darkened that is 
oppressed? f The rest of the verse describes how the 
foregoing prophecy was fulfilled. No one could doubt 
that it had reference to the invasion of Palestine by the 
Assyrians. It was believed to have been fulfilled in the 
overthrow of the kingdom of Israel. That result, how- 
ever, was not effected at once or by a single expedition. 
Indeed, it was twelve years after the date of Tiglath- 
pileser's brilliant raid, when the country was finally 
conquered ; and then it yielded only after a long contest. 
The editor, believing that Isaiah foresaw what actually 

is driven into gloom, or its equivalent, which Jer. xxiii. 12 is thought to 
favor; but the unnaturalness, to say the least, of the expression makes 
more probable that Pn3ti is a copyist's error, the result of confusing this 
passage with the one in Jeremiah. Taking this for granted, one will have 
little difficulty in restoring the text. The rendering of the Septuagint, so 
as not to see, suggests the construction used, while Am. v. 20 supplies the 
word that must have been employed. Combining the two, one arrives at 
the conclusion that the original of mitt was rUStt, and that the whole 
phrase read, as above, yea, gloom without brightness. See Mic. hi. 6; Job 
xxi. 9; Ges. § 1 19, 3, d, I. 

* In the English, as in the other versions, this verse is the first of the 
ninth chapter; but, in the original, — and this fact should be taken into 
account in its interpretation, — it is the last of the eighth. 

f So Duhm; similarly Luzzatto. On the omission of the interrogative 
particle, see 2 Kgs. v. 26; Ges. § 150, I. The traditional interpretation, 
which makes the words a promise that the land now oppressed shall not 
always be in darkness (Alexander), is violent and arbitrary. That of 
Earth, Weariness is unknown to the {enemy) that is arrayed against it, is 
far-fetched and unnatural, 



VIII. 2 3 ] 



COMMENTS. 



205 



occurred, with perfect frankness adds this note : The 
first time, in 754 B.C., he, Jehovah, through Tiglath- 
pileser, dealt gently, wrought but slight damage, — in 
the land * of Zebulon, a small district lying north of the 
plain of Esdraelon, near the southeastern corner of 
which Nazareth is situated, and the land of Naphtali, a 
strip of country, widest at the northern end, extending 
along the Jordan, and the lakes through which it hows, 
from Dan to Mt. Tabor. See 2 Kgs. xv. 29; Intr. 
Stud. II. | The note continues: but the last time, 
finally, in 724-722 b.c, through Shalmaneser and Sar- 
gon, he dealt severely,; wrought serious havoc, in the 
region (lit. way) of the Sea. This phrase, taken by 
itself, might mean the country along the Mediterranean, 
or that on either side of the Sea of Galilee. It is fol- 
lowed by another, beyond Jordan, which, at first sight, is 
very puzzling ; for, whether it is taken by itself, as is 
oftenest done ( Skinner), or, as usage requires ( Deu. iv. 

* On the construction of r^*K, see Ges. §§ 90, 2, b\ 118, 2, b. 

t The Gilead of 2 Kgs. xv. 29 is not the region of that name east of 
the Jordan. This is clear enough from the fact that all the places men- 
tioned are finally comprehended in the general description, all the land 
of Naphtali; it is rendered certain by the additional fact that, in the 
Assyrian inscription in which Tiglath-pileser recounts his expedition, the 
fragment of the name that has been preserved is preceded by the determi- 
native for a city. 

% The rendering, he hath made, in the sense of he will make, it glorious, 
in which the majority of commentators concur, is indefensible. In the 
first place, it is inconsistent. The verb ~"Z2r, is in the same tense as 7pn, 
lit. made light, and there is absolutely no ground for supposing, that, if, 
as all agree, the latter describes a past act, the former describes one yet 
future. Secondly, the causative stem of "22, be heavy, does not mean 
honor, but make heavy, or something akin to this signification. In this 
passage, therefore, as in 1 Kgs. xii. 10, the two verbs must be understood 
as denoting different degrees of maltreatment. 



206 



ISAIAH. 



[VIII. 23 



49 ; Jos. xiii. 27), attached to the phrase preceding, a 
part, at least, of the territory described is apparently 
located on the east of the Jordan, while the structure of 
the passage leads one to expect to find the country 
severely punished where that lightly chastened was 
situated. The difficulty disappears when one remem- 
bers, that, as has already been urged on other grounds, 
these words are not the words of Isaiah, but of an 
editor ; and that, as one also has good reason for holding, 
this editor, like the one whose hand appears in 2 Kgs. 
v. 4 (iv. 24), did his work in Babylonia. From that 
standpoint, the former territory of Zebulon and Naph- 
tali would naturally be described as in the region of the 
Mediterranean Sea, beyond the Jordan.* Moreover, on 
the supposition that there has, as yet, been no reference 
tp the country east of the Jordan, the final phrase 
becomes intelligible, the District of the nations, Galilee, 
so called because it never became so thoroughly Hebrew 
as the rest of the country, is simply another name for 
the region in question, northern Palestine.! There are 

* It is possible that D\1 *|""H ought to be translated literally, in the 
direction of the sea, i.e., westward, like D 1 *]"H in I Kgs. xviii. 43. The 
whole expression would then become equivalent to Jlto" {"H" H "Q1?D, beyond 
the Jordan, westward. See Jos. v. I ; GASmith, HGHL, 428 n. This 
change, however, would not affect the interpretation above adopted. 

f The name h"h\ Galil, the original of Galilee, occurs five times in the 
Old Testament outside of the present connection. In three cases (Jos. 
xx. 7, xxi. 32; I Chr. vi. 61 / 76) it designates the undefined region in which 
Kedesh was located. In a fourth (2 Kgs. xv. 29) it seems to be applied 
to a part only of Naphtali; but, since, in this passage, Kedesh appears 
without any indication of its identity, and in all other cases but one (Jos. 
xii. 22) in which it occurs, its location is described, there can be little doubt 
that here, also, the original text read, not Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, 
and Galilee, but Kedesh in Galilee, and Hazor, and Gilead. The remain- 



VIII. 23-IX. 1/2] 



COMMENTS. 



207 



no means of learning how severely this region suffered 
during the siege of Samaria (2 Kgs. xviii. 9 ff. ; Intr. 
Stud. II.), but one can imagine what must have been its 
condition after the Assyrian armies had passed back 
and forth over it for three years. 

The picture of the immediate future of Israel that 
Isaiah drew for his disciples, is a dark one, but it con- 
tains hints of something brighter. The statement, e.g., 
that he and his sons are signs and tokens to his people, 
reminds one that his oldest son bore the name Shear- 
yashub ; and his declaration that he will wait for Jehovah 
suggests that he must have had reason for his confi- 
dence. Did he share his expectations with his disciples ? 
They must, at times, even before Judah was attacked 
by the Assyrians, have sorely needed such encourage- 
ment. It is inconceivable that he should not, either 
before or during the darkness that he had predicted, 
have given them some idea what was in store for them, 
and, if he did, the following prophecy concerning 

(c) A Great Light (ix. 1/2-6/7) may well be one of 
those to which he then gave utterance. At any rate, 
nothing could have been better calculated to cheer the 
hearts of the faithful during that trying period. 

ix. 1 /2. It begins with an allusion to the situation de- 
scribed in the preceding paragraph. The people that 
walk in darkness are the house of Jacob, from whom, 
in viii. 17, the prophet pictures Jehovah as hiding his 

ing passage (i Kgs. ix. n) does not define the limits of this region, but 
indicates that it must have been of considerable extent, since the twenty 
cities that Solomon gave to Hiram were only a part of it. In New Testa- 
ment times it included the territory, not only of Zebulon and Naphtali, but 
of Asher and Issachar. See Josephus, JW, iii. 3, 1. 



20S 



ISAIAH. 



[IX. 1/2, 2/3 



face ; not, however, the entire people, but the puri- 
fied remnant destined to be the nation of the future. 
They shall see a great light, a glorious period of 
favor with Jehovah and consequent prosperity.* on 
them that dwell t in a hitherto gloomy land (viii. 22) 
it shall burst, as the sun bursts upon the earth in the 
morning. 

2/3. In thus restoring his people to favor Jehovah 
will cause abundant exultation, J produce a state of things 
in which there will be great exultation. The prophet 
resorts to comparison to show how great the joy and 
exultation are to be. men shall rejoice continually, as 
they rejoice in harvest, when, with feasting and dancing, 
they celebrate the ingathering of the produce of their 
toil (Ex. xxiii. 16; Jud. ix. 27; xxi. 21). The phrase 
before thee, with which the prophet modifies his state- 
ment, means that, in the good time coming, men will 
recognize in Jehovah the source of the blessings in 
which they rejoice. § A second simile is added. The 

* The original has the perfect, have seen ; and this, as being more vivid, 
would be the preferable rendering, if it were not ambiguous. Since, how- 
ever, the use of the perfect in English is liable to be understood as refer- 
ring to a past event, and it is clear from internal evidence {v. 4), but 
especially from xi. I f., that the whole passage has to do with things to 
come, it seems best to employ throughout the future tense. 

f On the construction of see Ges. § 130, 1. 

\ The text has ^JH n*£"H, thou wilt make great the nation, not. 
For the last word the Masoretes read *h, to it. The change, although it 
improves the sense, introduces a superfluous element into the construction. 
It is better, with Krochmal, for ^SH, to read "^"SH, rejoicing, exulta- 
tion, and thus produce a perfect correspondence between the two halves 
of the verse. 

§ The word ^"Ith might mean, at the sanctuary; but, if it be so inter- 
preted in this passage, it must either be treated as a gloss (Duhm), or 
transposed with the word following. 



IX. 2/3-5/6] 



COMMENTS. 



209 



joy will be like that when men divide booty, are victori- 
ous in war (i Sam. xviii. 6f. ; xxx. 16). 

3/4. There are two intermediate causes by which this 
happy condition of things is to be produced. First, the 
yoke that burdeneth them, the domination of Assyria, 
with its galling tribute, and the staff on their shoulders, 
the suffering inflicted upon them by the conqueror, will 
be broken, brought to an end. Some idea of the weight 
of the Assyrian yoke may be gathered from the fact, 
that Menahem had to pay Tiglath-pileser a thousand 
talents of silver, or about a million eight hundred thou- 
sand dollars, besides an annual tribute (2 Kgs. xv. 19), 
for the privilege of governing Israel ; and Ahaz was 
obliged to purchase the right to call himself the servant 
of the same monarch with the entire contents of the 
public coffers (2 Kgs. xvi. 8). Moreover, the Assyrian 
kings, according to their own testimony, were as cruel 
as they were avaricious.* Such is the taskmaster, to 
whom God's people have been consigned for chastise- 
ment. But they are to be delivered, as suddenly and 
gloriously delivered, as in the day when Gideon routed 
and destroyed the numberless host of Midian (Jud. vii. 

19 ff.> 

4/5. Yea, every boot tramping noisily, the heavy, noisy 
footwear of the soldier (comp. Delitzsch) and the cloak 
dragged in blood, the military cloak stained with the 
blood of battle, — every relic of the armies that have 
so long trampled Palestine under foot and drenched its 
soil with blood, shall be burned, utterly destroyed. 

5/6. Thus far there has been no indication by what 

* The Assyrian inscriptions abound in proofs of this assertion. See 
Schrader, KB, II. 4f., 56f., 70 f., 108 ff., etc 



210 



ISAIAH. 



[IX. 5/5 



means the Assyrians are to be overthrown and driven 
from the country. The instrument chosen for this pur- 
pose, and also for the purpose of giving to the delivered 
people lasting prosperity and happiness, is now intro- 
duced. The prophet, with an exultation like that which 
he has just described, exclaims, a child shall be born to 
us. There are two things with reference to this state- 
ment that deserve notice. One is that the phrase to 
us is not emphatic, as the English version, by placing 
it at the beginning of the sentence, makes it. The 
other is, that, as xi. I conclusively proves, the birth of 
the child is yet, i.e., at some time after the beginning of 
the period of darkness (ix. 1/2), something to be ex- 
pected. This being the case, the child here announced 
cannot, as is widely maintained (Orelli), be Immanu-el ; 
for his birth was to be coincident with the appearance 
of the Assyrians in Palestine. In fact, this child, so 
far from being one with Immanu-el, is contrasted with 
him. It is as if Isaiah had said : The king and his 
counsellors have attempted the part of Providence and 
failed : their Immanu-el will have to eat curds and honey 
with the rest of us. We trust in Jehovah : by him a 
son shall be given to us, who shall be, not the sport of 
circumstances, but a power for the restoration of the 
nation.* The prophet proceeds to describe the child, 
the sovereignty, he says, shall be on his shoulder; he 
shall be a king, with all the dignity and authority of a 
sovereign. The titles by which he is to be known are 

* The identification of these two children with each other seems to have 
begun before the close of the canon. See Mic. v. 3, the author of which, 
by making this mistake, betrays that he is not Micah, the contemporary of 
Isaiah. 



IX. 5/6] 



COMMENTS. 



211 



given. They are not mere designations, without interest 
except as they reflect the conditions under which he is 
to be born. They are, so to speak, the decorations be- 
stowed by a grateful people in recognition of his ex- 
alted character and services. These titles are four in 
number : * they shall call him, first, Wondrous-counsellor. 
The woman of Tekoa who came to David to plead for 
the restoration of Absalom, when she was taxed with 
being an emissary of Joab, said to the king, " My lord 
is as wise as the angel of God, knowing all that is in 
the earth " (2 Sam. xiv. 20). Extraordinary wisdom was 
recognized as one of the necessary qualifications of a 
successful ruler. Hence Solomon, when given permis- 
sion to ask of Jehovah what he would, besought that, 
above all, he might have a heart to " discern between 
good and evil" (1 Kgs. iii. 5 ff.). The coming king will 
be so richly endowed in this respect that he will fully 
meet all demands upon him, and justly be hailed a 
wonder of wisdom. The source of this wisdom is not 
indicated, but xi. 2 refers it to the spirit of Jehovah. 
Some, struck with another side of this extraordinary 
character, will call him Mighty-lord. It devolves upon 
the ruler, not merely to decide contests between his sub- 

* The text, as punctuated, would read, and the Wonder, the Counsellor, , 
the Mighty God, shall call his name Father-of-booty, Prince-of-peace ; but 
this interpretation, like that of Luzzatto, according to which the child's 
name is the sentence, Decreeth-wonders-the-mighty-God-the-alway-Father- 
the-Lord-of-peace, was evidently dictated by a desire to avoid applying the 
term mighty God to any one but the Deity. See also the Septuagint. It 
is also a mistake to regard the entire group of words as a single name 
(Cheyne). One cannot conceive of such a name as having a popular 
origin. On the other hand, if either of the four pairs of words be separated 
as in the English and German versions, the resulting names lack the like- 
ness in form and tone that one would expect in such a series. 



212 



ISAIAH. 



[IX. 5/6 



jects, but also, if necessary, to enforce his decisions. 
Moreover, he it is to whom his people, as a whole, have 
a right to look for protection from external enemies. 
He is therefore, with more or less propriety, called a 
lord. The fitness of the title in any particular case de- 
pends upon the actual power of the given ruler, or, from 
the Hebrew standpoint, upon the degree in which he 
approaches the power of the Supreme Lord. Ahaz was 
as weak as he was unwise. The future ruler, like David 
(2 Sam. xvii. 10), is to be mighty. How great is to be 
his power, the prophet does not here attempt to de- 
scribe ; but, by combining with this passage xi. 2, prop- 
erly interpreted in Mic. v. 4, one learns that he is to be 
so abundantly endowed with the spirit of Jehovah, that, 
in his sphere, he will be practically omnipotent.* The 

* The orig inal of this title, ma f?K, has been rendered in various other 
ways, but the only one that deserves special consideration is Mighty- God. 
The second of these words is not an exact equivalent of The English 
word denotes an object, proper or improper, of worship; and is not cor- 
rectly used in any other sense. The Hebrew word has a different, and 
a more extensive signification. It is applied, not only to the true God 
(xii. 2) and the heathen divinities recognized in the Old Testament (Deu. 
xxxii. 12), but, without a figure, to men of rank, such as kings (Eze. xxxi. 
11, xxxii. 21) and princes (Ex. xv. 15; Job xli. 17/25). In other words, 
it is an appellative denoting a person in a position of power over others, 
like the English word lord. On the variation in its orthography and 
a Masoretic device to distinguish the "sacred" from the "profane" 
use of it, see Bathgen, BSR, 274. On the further question, concerning 
the precise meaning of the entire name, x. 21 has been supposed to have 
an important bearing (Delitzsch) ; but this is a mistake, since it is by no 
means certain to whom the title is there applied. The most plausible 
interpretation is, that, in both cases, it refers to the child to be born as a 
great king; for, in Eze. xxxii. 21, the plural of an equivalent, or, if, as 
seems probable, the original text had instead of of the same 

title, is applied to the kings of a number of great nations; and, in all the 
passages in which the words TQJ. are clearly used of Jehovah (Deu. x. 



IX. 5/6, 6/ 7 ] 



COMMEXTS. 



213 



power attributed to the coming king is such as fits him 
for success in war. He will display it against the op- 
pressors of his country. So successful will he be in his 
contest with them, that men will give him the third title, 
Booty-taker (lit. Father-of-booty\ conqueror (2 Sam. xii. 
30).* Finally, he will be called Prince-of-peace, be- 
cause, like David (2 Sam. vii. 1), by his success in 
war, he has secured to his people the blessings of 
peace (Mic. v. 4). 

6/7. The results of the reign of this ideal king will 
be as beneficial as his character is remarkable. He 
comes for the enlargement f of the sovereignty, to extend 
the dominion and the authority of the house of David 
(Am. ix. 12); and for endless peace, to establish a lasting 
condition of peace ; on the throne of David, ruling as the 
lineal descendant and rightful successor of the founder 
of the dynasty, over his kingdom. He will devote him- 
self to establishing % and strengthening it, insuring it, 
as far as possible, against disaster, by justice and right- 

17; Jer. xxxii. 18; Neh. ix. 32), he is thus distinguished from all the other 
gods as the one who is supremely mighty. 

* The rendering adopted seems required by the context and justified by 
the use of IV in the sense of booty in xxxiii. 23; also in Gen. xlix. 27 and 
Zep. iii. 8. The majority of exegetes prefer Father-of-contimiance, which 
is explained as meaning, either that the person in question will live forever 
(Guthe, ZJ, S, 41), or that he will always be a father to his people 
(Orelli). This rendering, also, is grammatically defensible (lvii. 15), and 
it has the support of Mic. v. 2 (comp. Wellhausen, SV t V, 142); but it 
does not harmonize so well as the one above preferred with the tone of the 
entire passage, or furnish so good a connection between the preceding and 
the following title. On the construction, see Ew. § 273, b\ Ols. § 277, e; 
Kon, § 122, 5, c, n. 

f For !"D1 read 

% On the construction of p3Jl7, see Ges. § 114, 2, R. 4. 



214 



ISAIAH. 



[IX. 6/7 



eousness, without which no government can long remain 
prosperous ; to the end that, although he may give 
place to a successor, it may endure forever, to the end 
of time. See 2 Sam. vii. 16. This is a glorious pros- 
pect. It must have been difficult for some of the 
prophet's disciples to believe that so great things were 
in store for the nation. He has no misgivings. The 
ground of his confidence, as he explains, is in The jeal- 
ousy of Jehovah of Hosts, the indignation that must 
finally be aroused in him at the excesses by which the 
Assyrians presume to interfere with his purposes con- 
cerning his chosen (Eze. xxxvL 5 f. ). 

The meaning, then, of Isaiah's great announcement, 
is, that there is soon to be born a prince of the house 
of David, who will develop into so perfect a king, that 
he will be able, not only to deliver his people from their 
Assyrian oppressors, but to establish them in an exalted 
and enduring position among the nations of the earth. 
It is hardly necessary to ask the question whether the 
prophecy was fulfilled. There never arose a king to 
rule over Judah who bore any such character, or 
achieved so great and lasting results. What then ? 
Was Isaiah not a prophet? One might say, in reply, 
that he deserves the title "prophet'' for discerning 
what was needed to restore the Hebrews to their former 
position in the world ; and add, that the prophecy was 
fulfilled, in a degree, by more than one of the subse- 
quent rulers of Judah, This view of the question, how- 
ever, is incomplete, because it forbids the connection 
with Jesus on which Christians in all ages have insisted. 
To find the complete answer, one must go deeper. It 
runs something like this : The Hebrews believed in 



IX, 6/ 7 ] 



COMMENTS. 



215 



God : they believed also in man ; and that the former 
could manifest himself through the latter. This divinely 
inspired conviction furnished them, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, with an explanation for excellence of every 
sort (Jud. xiii. 25; Ex. xxxi. 3; Gen. xli. 38; Num. 
xxiv. 2); and, in any emergency, with a remedy for the 
situation. The redemptive idea took different forms in 
different periods of Hebrew history (xi. 1 ff. ; xlii. 1 ff.). 
Toward the end of the monarchy, as in the passage 
under consideration, it assumed that of the expectation 
of an ideal king. This expectation, as has already been 
asserted, was not fulfilled by any king who ever sat on 
the throne of David ; for the reason that none of them 
was sufficiently in harmony with Jehovah to be a per- 
fect instrument in his hands. In the literal sense, it 
was not fulfilled by Jesus ; but for exactly the contrary 
reason. He was so completely one with the Father, 
that, refusing to be called merely the Son of David, he 
could claim to be at once the Son of Man and the Son 
of God (Mat. xvi. 13 ff.). In other words, he fulfilled, 
not this, or any other, definite prediction ; but the grand 
prophetic thought that underlay them all, and that had 
found more or less inspired and inspiring expression 
also among the Gentiles ; and, as the supreme manifes- 
tation of the divine in the human (1 Tim. hi. 16), he 
became the perfect Saviour of universal humanity (1 Pet. 
i. 20 f.). As for Isaiah, he must still be counted a 
prophet ; because his teaching, though imperfect, was 
in line with what now appears to have been the divine 
purpose, and therefore calculated to prepare his people 
for all the blessings of the old covenant, and finally for 
the advent of the incarnate Redeemer. 



216 



ISAIAH. 



[IX. 7/8, 8/g 



The rest of this book consists of a group of prophe- 
cies, of various dates, the general subject of which may 
be stated as 

b. THE WORK OF JEHOVAH (ix. 7/8-xii. 6). 

In the first place, there is a composite piece, describing 

(l) A Succession of Chastisements (ix. 7/8-x. 4); — 
the greater part of which (ix. 7/8-20/21) is evidently 
an imitation of Am. ii. 9 ff., and, therefore, probably 
one of Isaiah's earliest utterances. The rest of it 
(x. 1-4), as will appear, belongs to another connection. 
The whole forms four strophes, the first of which tells 
how Israel, in the narrower sense, has been plagued 
with 

(a) Foreign Foes (ix. 7/8-11/ 12). — 7/8. It opens 
with the declaration, that A decree * is about to be sent 
by the Lord.j This decree can hardly be the following 
prophecy as a whole (Orelli), which is largely a review 
of the chastisements that Jehovah has already decreed ; 
but it must be sought elsewhere, viz. in v. 26-30, where 
the people are threatened with an invasion of the Assy- 
rians. It is to be sent among Jacob ; i.e., as is explained 
in the next verse, the inhabitants of the Northern King- 
dom ; and it, or, strictly, the calamity decreed (lv. 11), 
shall fall, J take effect, among Israel. 

8/9. When this happens, the people will at last, but 
too late, take knowledge; realize that it is God with 
whom they have had to do (Hos. ix. 7). This they 

* For "OH, word, the Septuagint read "0% plague. 

f Instead of Lord, many codices have HUT, Jehovah. 

% On the construction of bS3% see Ges. § 112, 3, c, 8; comp. Dri. § 133. 



IX. 8/9-11/12] 



COMMENTS. 



217 



have not heretofore realized (i. 3); as, e.g., when they 
[spake] * in pride and arrogance, instead of humility 
and submission, after some of their towns had been 
laid waste. Bricks, often undried, from time immemo- 
rial the material used for ordinary houses in Palestine 
(Thomson, LB, I. 163 ff.), are fallen, the houses made 
of them have been destroyed ; but we will rebuild with 
hewn stone, finer and more substantial houses. See 
Am. v. 11. The sentiment is repeated: sycamores, a 
kind of trees once very common in the country, and, on 
account of their durability, much used in building 
(1 Kgs. x. 27), are hewn in pieces, not cut down (Jer. 1. 
23 ; comp. Hitzig), by the enemy ; but we will replace 
them, in new houses, with cedars, viz. of Lebanon, 
throughout the East highly prized for building purposes 
(2 Sam. v. 11 ; 1 Kgs. vi. 9 ff.). 

10/ n. The injury thus done the country must have 
been done before Isaiah began his ministry ; for, it was 
because the people were not humbled by it, that Jehovah 
upheld their adversaries f against them ; and these ad- 
versaries, as appears from the next verse, were the 
Syrians, whom Tiglath-pileser overthrew in 732 b.c. 

11/12. While the Syrians, the hereditary enemies of 

* A verb, perhaps the form D^SI/SH (lit. those speaking), seems to 
have fallen out of the text. 

f The text has pJH "H2i, the adversaries of Resin, but this reading is 
impossible. Several forms of emendation have been suggested. Thus, 
Lagarde would omit "H2£ (adversaries of), and Houbigant, with a number 
of codices, change it to "Httf, princes ; while JDMichaelis, following the 
Septuagint, turns pUH, Resin, into jT2£, Zion, or jV2£ "in, Mount Zion. But 
neither of these suggestions is so satisfactory as that of Bredenkamp, who 
omits and changes pit"! to T12£, his, i.e., their, adversaries, the read- 
ing above adopted. 



218 ISAIAH. [IX. 11/12-14/15 

Israel (1 Kgs. xv. 20, etc.), attacked them from the east, 
or, rather, the northeast, the Philistines invaded their 
country from the west, or, more exactly, the southwest. 
There is no record of the particular invasion here men- 
tioned, but there is no doubt that the Philistines were 
always on the lookout for opportunities to prey upon 
the Northern, as well as the Southern, Kingdom. See 
2 Chr. xxviii. 18. The damage done was great, for 
these swarming foes devoured . . . with open mouth, 
greedily. Still Jehovah did not relent; his hand was 
outstretched still. See v. 25. 

The next means by which Jehovah is represented as 
punishing his people seems to have been 

(b) Merciless Pestilence (vv. 1 2/1 3-16/ 1 7). — 12/13. The 
reason for this additional infliction is, that the people 
returned not to him that smote them,* Jehovah. Comp. 
x. 20. 

13/14. Therefore he cut off from Israel head and tail, 

all classes, without discrimination. The same idea is 
repeated under the figure of the palm-tip and rush, 
the lordliest and the humblest form of vegetation. All 
this took place in a day, a startlingly brief space of 
time. 

14/15. There follows a different interpretation, ac- 
cording to which The elder, the corrupt ruler in the 
community, and the favorite at court, are the head, one 

* The form irDftlt, lit. the one smiting kim, with both the article and 
a suffix, which is sometimes characterized as an anomaly (Ges. § 116, 3, 
n. 2), is no stranger than "D ttfJDn, the one oppressing him, in v. 3. The 
only difference is, that, in this case, the participle takes the accusative after 
it, and not, as in the other, the genitive with 2. See Gen. xlii. 29. La- 
garde proposes to read !TtU = "HI?, for "117. 



IX. 14/15-16/17] 



COMMENTS. 



219 



class destined for destruction ; and the prophet that 
teacheth falsehood, and thus misleads the people, the 
tail, another, and less reputable, class. This interpreta- 
tion is so inconsistent with the evident meaning of the 
preceding verse that it cannot be by Isaiah. Its severity 
upon the false prophets indicates that it must be as late 
as, if not later than, Jeremiah. See Jer. xiv. 14; Eze. 
xiii. 9 ; comp. Delitzsch. 

15/16. The prophet now returns to the subject of 
v. 12/13, the cause of Jehovah's severity, declaring, that 
the guides, leaders, of Israel had become seducers ; and 
that, through them, their followers, those who depended 
upon them for guidance, were destroyed.* 

16/17. The entire people had to suffer for the sins 
of the leaders. Jehovah spared f not even their youths, 
to whom, on account of their youth and comparative 
irresponsibility, he might have been expected to show 
some clemency (Am. viii. 1 3). neither had he pity on 
their orphans and widows, elsewhere represented as the 
objects of his peculiar care (i. 7). for, says the next 
line, they were all, not all the orphans and widows, 
although that is the natural meaning as the text is now 

* This verse, also, is regarded by Duhm as an editorial addition. 
Cheyne rescues it by omitting both 13/ 14 and 14/15. There certainly is 
something the matter with the text at this point, for it is clear that the 
second couplet of v. 16/17 was never intended for its present position. 
The connection would be greatly improved if v. 14/15 were omitted, and 
w. 13/14 and 16/ 17 a/3 changed places. This, however, would not meet all 
the difficulties : the strophe would still be a couplet shorter than the other 
two. It is, therefore, probable that at least one couplet has been lost, and 
that v. 14/15 was inserted to fill the vacant space. If two have thus been 
replaced, the second is doubtless v. 15/16, whose likeness to iii. 12 gives 
some grounds for suspecting its genuineness. 

f PI2D" (xxxi. 5), with Lagarde, for PIET", rejoiced. 



220 



ISAIAH. 



[IX. 15/17-18/ 19 



arranged, but all the people, faithless and wicked. On 
the other hand, For all this, etc., must be connected, not 
with this charge, but with the description of Jehovah's 
severity toward the orphans and widows, or, by a re- 
arrangement of the text, with the similar description in 
v. 13/14-* 

The date of the infliction here described cannot be 
determined. See Am. iv. 10. 

The third strophe describes how Israel was weakened 
and wellnigh destroyed by 

(c) Internal Strife (yv. 17 / '18-20/21). — 17/18. This 
condition of things is viewed, first, as a reign of godless- 
ness, and compared to a fire, set among thorns and 
briers, which finally attacks the thickets, thick-set trees, 
of the forest. See Thomson, LB, II. 293. The mean- 
ing of the figure is evident ; viz. that the first effects of 
the wickedness of the people were comparatively slight, 
but that it finally brought upon them wide-spread de- 
struction. It was like the disappearance of a forest in 
a column of smoke. Comp. Delitzsch. 

18/19. From another standpoint it was the fury of 
Jehovah by which the land was consumed.! It was by 
his decree that the people, on account of their persist- 

* The strophe, so far as it has been preserved, if rearranged in ac- 
cordance with the above suggestions, would read as follows : 

12 Yet the people returned not to him that smote them, and Jehovah 
of Hosts they sought not; 16a £ for they were all faithless and wicked and 
every mouth spake folly. . . . 16aa Therefore the Lord spared not their 
youths, neither had he pity on their orphans and widows; 13 and Jehovah 
cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-tip and rush, in one day. leh For 
all this his anger turned not, but his hand was outstretched still. 

f For DM173 read, with Krochmal, HflSB. 



IX. 18/19-20/21] 



COMMENTS. 



Ill 



ence in wickedness, became as it were fuel for the fire.* 

The rest of the verse is misplaced. 

19/20. The figure is now changed. The people are 
represented as greedy guests at a revolting feast, they 
cut to the right . . . and ate to the left, everything 
within their reach, without being satisfied. The char- 
acter of the feast is brought out in the last line of v. 
18/19, No one spared his brother, which belongs here, 
and the rest of this one, they ate, every one the flesh of 
his fellow ; f devoured one another in civil war. 

20/21. Finally, in their savage fury, Manasseh and 
Ephraim, the most nearly related of all the tribes of 
Israel, representing the factions from whose struggles 
that kingdom had but lately suffered (2 Kgs. xv. 25), 
combined against Judah. They forgot their disputes, 
and even their inherited antipathy to Syria, when an 
opportunity offered to do their southern kinsmen harm. 
This seems to be the state of things described in 2 Kgs. 
xv. 37; in other words, this strophe probably brings the 
prophet's review of Israel's unfortunate history nearly 
down to the date of the prophecy. Yet this is not the 
end. The hand of Jehovah was outstretched still against 
them. 

The refrain requires at least one more strophe ; but, 
if the one just concluded dealt with recent events, there 

* Duhm has an interesting conjecture on this phrase. For w'X nb-XE- 
he would read w'"X *^CX "22, like eaters of men, cannibals, and thus pre- 
pare the reader for v. 19/20. The objection to it is, that, since the fury 
of Jehovah is naturally represented as fire (Eze. xxi. 36/31), and DfiiH 
either means burn, or has taken the place of a word of that import, some 
reference to fire in this line is to be expected. It would be better to drop 
the couplet altogether as a gloss to v. 17/18. 

t ISTl, with Seeker, for *L , '1i, his arm, as in Jer. xix. 9. 



222 



ISAIAH. 



[X. I, 2 



cannot well be more than one or two additional; and 
it, or they, should contain a prediction of the destruc- 
tion of Israel. The next four verses, in which the alter- 
native, 

(d) Death or Captivity (x. 1-4), — is presented, at first 
sight seems to meet this requirement. Such, however, 
is not the case. The refrain at the end of v. 4 makes it 
impossible to regard the strophe, in its present form, as 
the conclusion of this, or any other prophecy. Nor 
does the removal of the refrain mend matters ; for, it is 
clear from the familiarity of the prophet with the prac- 
tices of those who are condemned, that he is addressing, 
not Israel, but Judah ; in other words, that these verses 
do not belong to the same discourse as ix. 7/8-20/21. 
Obliged by these reasons to look elsewhere for a con- 
clusion, and guided by the appearance of the familiar 
refrain in v. 25, one at length finds what is sought in 
v. 26-30. At the same time, both the form and the 
content of the paragraph now under consideration lead 
one to place it, minus the refrain, among the woes of the 
fifth chapter. Comp. Cheyne, IBI, 46 f.* 

x. 1. The prophet addresses himself to them that 
record iniquitous decrees, the judges already more than 
once arraigned for their injustice. The same are prob- 
ably meant by the writers that engross trouble, decisions 
that work hardship. Comp. Dillmann. 

2. That judges, and not legislators, are meant, seems 

* Cheyne, following Ewald, inserts x. 1-4 between ix. 20/21 and v. 26; 
and thus, besides introducing a woe against Judah into a prophecy con- 
cerning Israel, furnishes this prophecy with a very inartistic double con- 
clusion, the two parts of which are separated by a refrain that Isaiah 
would not have used in a prediction. 



X. 2-4] COMMENTS. 223 

to be indicated by the terms in which the prophet de- 
velops his accusation. The persons arraigned are 
accused of turning the lowly from judgment, preventing 
them from obtaining their rights. This is the negative 
side of their offence : the positive is, that widows are 
their prey, and orphans their plunder. See i. 23. 

3. The prophet's indignation is aroused at the thought 
of such injustice. It does not occur to him to doubt 
that it will be punished, and that the penalty will be a 
terrible one. What, then, he demands, will ye do 
against the day of retribution? how prepare yourselves 
(Am. iv. 12) to meet Jehovah, the Judge of the whole 
earth, when he comes to reward you according to your 
desert? It is the day of destruction (lit. tempest) that 
cometh, at the command of the Lord of the whole earth, 
from afar, the distant region of Assyria (v. 26). He 
insists upon an examination of their resources. To 
whom will ye flee for help, against the Almighty ? and 
where will ye bestow yourselves (lit. your glory, soul), to 
be safe from his vengeance ? * 

4. Isaiah does not wait for an answer to his question. 
He knows that the accused are helpless. He therefore 
proceeds, in Jehovah's name, and with a brevity that 
greatly enhances its impressiveness, to pronounce their 

* Both of these questions have a pregnant construction. In the former, 
the use of bv, on, instead of bit, to, gives to the sentence the force of, 
On whom, jledng, will ye rely for help? and in the latter zvhither, has 
a similar effect. In this case the complete expression would be, Whither 
will ye betake and bestozv yourselves ? On the construction, see Ges. § 119, 
4; comp. Buhl. The usual rendering for is your wealth (Skin- 

ner), a rarer one your nobility (Henderson); but parallelism requires the 
one above given, and it is supported by such passages as Ps. vii. 6 and 
xvi. 10. 



224 



ISAIAH. 



sentence. It is in the form of an alternative : Whoso 
sinketh not, exhausted by fatigue or privation, under 
the feet of prisoners, his fellows in fetters, shall fall, 
before the arms of the conqueror, beneath, and one of, 
the slain.* Here ends the strophe, if such, in this 
connection, it may be called ; the refrain, since it can 
properly refer only to the past, being an editorial addi- 
tion, made for the purpose of connecting the whole with 
the three strophes preceding. 

It was early in Isaiah's career when the prophecies 
just examined were delivered. The Assyrians had then, 
however, already made their appearance in the West. 
The prophet saw in them the instrument by which 
Jehovah intended to punish his people, as well as the 
surrounding nations, for their offences ; and he was 

* The passage is a difficult one. It seems to read, literally, Except one 
have sunk under a prisoner, and under the slain shall they fall ; but 1 must 
often be translated then, rather than and^ or omitted, when it introduces 
an apodosis. See Ges. § 154. Moreover, the use of the singular for the 
plural, both of the noun and the verb, is of frequent occurrence. See 
Ges. §§ 123, b; 144, 3, a. The interpretation adopted, therefore, is lin- 
guistically defensible; and, being in harmony with the evident meaning of 
the context, is probably a substantially accurate reproduction of what the 
prophet intended to say. Similarly the Peshita. Another possible trans- 
lation is, \Naugkt re77iaineth for theni] except to sink imder prisoners {as 
a prisoner) and (or) fall under the slain (Delitzsch). See, however, the 
difference in tense between the verbs. Many other interpretations have 
been suggested, but none of those based on the present text is so satis- 
factory as either of the two given. Lagarde has suggested an ingenious 
emendation of the text. He would read the first line fin DIH3 
TEK, Beltis bovoeth, Osiris is broken. Comp. xlvi. I. This is very striking 
and attractive, since these gods may be regarded as representing Assyria 
and Egypt, the two powers to which the Jews alternately turned for as- 
sistance; but, on second thought, it seems almost too abrupt to be the 
correct reading. 



X. 5-7] 



COMMENTS. 



225 



content that they should do their work. Years later, 
when, one after another, the kings of Assyria had over- 
run Palestine; when Israel had been destroyed, and 
Judah was threatened with a similar fate ; he became 
better acquainted with the conquerors, and began to 
inquire how long their haughty cruelty was to go un- 
checked. The answer to this question is his prophecy 
concerning 

(2) The Rod of God's Anger (x. 5-34). — In its present 
form, it is divisible into four sections, the first of which 
recites 

(a) The Boast of the Assyrian (vv. 5-1 1). — 5. The 
Woe with which the prophet begins anticipates the 
specific denunciations of the next section. It is pro- 
nounced upon Assyria as represented by its king (vii. 
17, 20). Jehovah calls him the rod of his anger, the 
instrument of his displeasure, and a staff at his command 
in the day of his vengeance.* 

6. He sent him Against a faithless nation, his chosen,, 
but rebellious, people, the Hebrews; who, by their faith- 
lessness, had aroused his fury. He commissioned him 
to take booty, conquer them ; and to trample them like 
the mire of the streets, completely subjugate them. 

7. The Assyrian, however, was not so minded, was 
not in harmony with the divine purpose ; for it was in 

* The text has K1f1 !TD&; an impossible construction. Various 

emendations have been suggested : as, e.g., the omission of the first word, 
after the rendering of the Septuagint (Bredenkamp) ; the second (Lowth) ; 
or the second and the third (Hitzig) ; but the last makes the line too short; 
and the other two leave the figure unclear, and the suffix of , in their 
hand, unexplained. All these objections are avoided by adopting Seeker's 
suggestion, and changing to C"2 , in ihe day of, as in the above trans- 
lation. 



226 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 7-9 



his heart, as an aim and ambition, to destroy his rivals 
and cut off nations not a few, as many as possible ; thus 
extending his own empire. See xlvii. 6; Zee. i. 15. 

8. The disposition of the great king appears in the 
first words put into his mouth. He says, Are not my 
princes, the governors of the various divisions of the 
empire, all kings ? This might mean that they were 
conquered sovereigns (2 Kgs. xvii. 3). Some of them 
were, but others were Assyrian officers ; hence it is 
probable that Isaiah here intends to represent the 
Assyrian monarch as claiming, what was doubtless true, 
that his governors, whether they had the royal title or 
not, were at least equal in power to the kings of western 
Asia. See xxxvi. 9. This, however, does not exhaust 
the meaning of the question. It is intended, not to 
exalt the princes referred to, but, as appears from the 
following verses, to suggest the invincibility of their 
lord and master. Moreover, it is perfectly in character; 
for Sennacherib, in the inscription over his picture of 
the capture of Lakish, calls himself " king of nations," 
as well as " king of Assyria." * 

9. The boaster proceeds to demonstrate the folly of 
opposing him. Is not Kalno as Karkemish ? they have 
been taken, the one as well as the other. Kalno, the 
Kalneh of Am. vi. 2, can hardly be the Kulunu (Zirlab) 
in Babylonia taken by Sargon (Schrader, KAT, 444; 
Fried. Delitzsch ; WP, 225 f.): it is probably either 
Kunulua (Kinalia), the capital of Patin, in northern 
Syria, taken by Tiglath-pileser in 740 b.c. (Guthe, ZJ> 

* See also the introduction to the famous Taylor Cylinder, where he is 
entitled " the great king, the mighty king, the king of the world, the king 
of Assyria, the king of the four quarters " (Schrader, KB, II. 80 f.) . 



X. 9, io] 



COMMENTS. 



227 



43; Meyer, GA, I. 448); or the Gullani (Kullani) against 
which, according to the Eponym Canon, this latter king 
directed his operations in 738 (Tiele, BAG, 230; Winck- 
ler, A U, 131; Cheyne, IB I, 50) ; more probably the 
latter. Karkemish (Ass. Gargamis) was the capital of 
the Hittites, on the right bank of the upper Euphrates, 
at the site of the modern Jerabis (Delitzsch, WP, 265 ff.). 
It was taken for the last time by the Assyrians under 
Sargon in 717 b.c. (Schrader, KAT, 384 f . ; KB, 38 f. ; 
McCurdy, HPM, II. 243; Ragozin, SA, 261). Four 
more conquered cities, two pairs, are enumerated : first, 
Hamath, on the Orontes, just beyond the northern limit 
of the Promised Land (Num. xxxiv. 8), now Hamah. 
It submitted to Tiglath-pileser in 738 (Schrader, KAT, 
220f., 252 f . ; KB, II. 20 f., 26 f.), but it had to be re- 
conquered by Sargon in 720 (Schrader, KAT, 323 f. ; 
KB, II. 56 f. ; McCurdy, HPM, II. 240; Ragozin, SA, 
255). The other three cities were concerned in the 
revolt, as the result of which Hamath lost its indepen- 
dence ; but they seem to have returned to their alle- 
giance, when they saw their ally crushed. They had 
all recently felt the power of Assyria, and they shrank 
from the prospect of a repetition of that experience. 
Arpad, now Tell Erfad, a few miles north of Aleppo, 
had been conquered after a struggle of three years, in 
740 B.C., by Tiglath-pileser (Schrader, KA T, 486 f. ; KB, 
I. 212 f. ; McCurdy, HPM, I. 337; Ragozin, SA, 226); 
Damascus, after one of two years, in 732, by the same 
king (Intr. Stud. II.); and Samaria, after one of three 
years, in 722, by Sargon (Intr. Stud. II.). 

10. These six cities, among the strongest within the 
Jewish horizon, have fallen before the Assyrians. The 



228 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 10 



lesson is obvious, but the king is represented as giving 
it an explicit statement. In so doing he uses the expres- 
sion my hands. This must not be taken strictly, since 
neither Sargon nor Sennacherib could claim that he 
had personally subdued all the cities mentioned. It is 
the hands of the people whom the speaker represents 
that have seized these kingdoms.* The kingdoms are 
described as kingdoms which had statues, f of their 
divinities, above those of Jerusalem and Samaria. It is 
most natural to interpret this as meaning that the cities 
first enumerated, except Samaria, had, each of them, a 
larger number of idols than either of the two last 
named. Comp. Henderson. This means, of course, 
what the next verse more clearly expresses, that Samaria 
had worshipped idols, and that Jerusalem was now de- 
pending upon them for protection. The former of these 
statements cannot be gainsaid. At any rate, according 
to the books of Kings, Israel was an idolatrous kingdom; 
and, in fact, idolatry was the sin which had most to do 
with its destruction (2 Kgs. xviii. 9 ff.). The statement 
concerning Jerusalem, on the other hand, is not con- 
firmed by the Hebrew historian ; for, whether Sargon 
or Sennacherib be the mouth-piece of Assyria, the date 
of the prophecy falls within the reign of Hezekiah, the 
king of Judah who distinguished himself by destroying 
the high-places and removing the symbols of false relig- 
ion from his borders (2 Kgs. xviii. 4). Moreover, in the 

* The text has WjKTI rtibteZb, the kingdoms of the idol, or idols ; but 
the strangeness of the expression, both in form and content, makes it 
probable that the original reading was these kingdoms, as 

above. See Am. vi. 2; comp. Duhm. 

t For DiT'TDS, their statues, read orb a-* CS, statues to them. 



X. 10-12] 



COMMENTS. 



229 



account of Sennacherib's invasion, the Assyrian spokes- 
man recognizes Jehovah as the God and Champion of 
Judah (2 Kgs. xviii. 32 ff. ; xix. 10 ff.). 

11. Such being the case, it is not probable that Isaiah 
wrote the words just quoted, or put into the mouth of 
the Assyrian the question with which the paragraph 
now closes, as I have done to Samaria and its idols, shall 
I not do to Jerusalem and its images ? Both verses must 
have been added to the text by a later writer who, for 
some reason, did not notice the discrepancy between 
them and the preceding context* 

The second section of the prophecy describes 
(b) The Overthrow of the Boaster (vv. 12-19). — It is 
not entirely the work of Isaiah ; in fact, there are but 
two or three verses, — 13 and 14, and perhaps 15, — 
which, in their present form, can have been written by 
him. 

12. The boaster is to be punished, but only when the 
Lord shall have finished his whole work, the chastise- 
ment of his people, in Jerusalem. Then j he will punish 
the vaunt of the arrogance, the arrogant vaunt, of the king 
of Assyria. If there were other reasons for thinking 
this verse genuine, the mention of Assyria would settle 
the matter ; but since the other indications are to the 
contrary, it is necessary to suppose that the name 
Assyria is here, as in Ezr. vi. 22, applied to some other 
power. Compare the use of Babylon in Neh. xiii. 6 and 
Rev. xiv. 8. 

* There are two other facts pointing in the same direction; viz. that 
these two verses fall out of the rhythm of vv. 5-9; and that the thought 
contained in them is not expressed with Isaiah's clearness and succinctness. 

f The text has TpSK, I will punish, an evident error. 



230 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 13 



13. The Assyrian, whose vain-glorious soliloquy was 
interrupted by vv. 10-12, is now permitted to continue. 
With the strength of my own hand, he asserts, have I 
wrought. Taken strictly, this utterance hardly does 
justice to the supposed speaker. The Assyrian kings 
were doubtless very proud, but they were also very care- 
ful to give to their gods a share in the credit of their 
achievements. Thus Sennacherib, at the beginning of 
the inscription in which he recounts his campaign against 
Hezekiah, calls himself "the favorite of the gods," and 
attributes the success of his arms to the favor of " Asshur 
the great rock" (Schrader, KB, II. 82 f.). What the 
prophet means is, that the Assyrian ignores Jehovah, by 
whom, and not by his own gods, he is being directed. 
(See Dan. iv. 30.) In his own strength and wisdom he 
claims to have removed * the boundaries of the peoples, 
in accordance with the policy of Tiglath-pileser (Ragozin, 
SA, 219 ff.), by annexing conquered territory, and deport- 
ing the inhabitants to other parts of the empire ; a pro- 
ceeding which, since, according to Deu. xxxii. 8, these 
boundaries were established by Jehovah himself, like 
the removal of private landmarks (Deu. xiv. 14), was a 
sort of sacrilege. The parallel line, their treasures I 
have plundered,! is also in character; for the Assyrian 
inscriptions consist largely of records of the booty of all 
sorts taken by the kings in their campaigns. Sen- 
nacherib brought back from his first expedition, besides 
gold and silver and precious stones in great quantities, 
7200 horses and mules, 11,073 asses, 5230 camels, 80,- 
100 beeves, and 800,600 head of small cattle (Schrader, 

* For TDK"] read "TDK\ Comp. Ges. § 107, 1, a; Dri. § 84, a. 
f On the form WIIP, for TIDUP, see Ols. § 254. 



X. i 3 , 14] 



COMMENTS. 



231 



KB, II. 84 f.). The remnant of the verse was meant to 
be a continuation of the same subject, and the present 
text can be so interpreted, but the exact words of Isaiah 
have not been preserved. It is probable that the origi- 
nal was, I have also brought down to the earth cities, 
and destroyed their inhabitants,* or its equivalent. At 
any rate, a boast of this sort would have been perfectly 
in harmony with the practice of recording the number 
of cities taken and enemies slain, followed by the 
Assyrian kings. Sennacherib, e.g., in the inscription 
already quoted, claims, in his first expedition, to have 
taken seventy-five fortified towns in Chaldea, and four 
hundred and twenty smaller places in their vicinity ; and 
in another, describing his second campaign, he says that 
he slew " the inhabitants of Babylon small and great," 
and "filled the streets of the city with their carcasses" 
(Schrader, KB, II. 118 f.). 

14. The Assyrian closes his resume of his achieve- 

* There is no doubt about the corruption of the text. In the first place, 
there is only one line, while there ought to be two. Secondly, what there 
is, is not intelligible. Duhm, following a clue furnished by the Septuagint, 
suggests that the first line must have been, D"H1? "l£X2 TDKl, / also 
caused to sink in ashes cities ; but, having neglected the indications of the 
text itself, he is unable to restore the second. Now it seems clear, that, 
if, as the xoXets of the Septuagint would indicate, the first line contained 
the word D"HB, cities, the ff'iSlPY' of the second should be rendered, not 
those enthroned, but inhabitants. It seems natural, also, to look for the 
verb corresponding to TUX in the form T2K; and, upon finding T2X 
used by Jeremiah in a precisely similar connection (xlvi. 8), to conclude 
that an d I destroyed, and not like a bull, was the original 

reading. Having reached this point, one sees that another word must be 
inserted into the first line and a suffix added to the noun of the second. 
The result is the Hebrew of the rendering above given, CHI? £HXb "1H1K1 
mOOV On TTiKI, comp. Ges. § 107, I, a; Dri. § 84, a; on 

TiX\ see Ges'. § 68, 2, R. 1. 



232 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 14, 15 



ments with a characteristic illustration. He compares 
himself to a hunter. The people were birds, and their 
treasuries nests whose contents, their wealth, he coveted, 
and, he says, as one gathereth deserted eggs, eggs de- 
serted by the frightened brooders, have I gathered the 
riches of the whole earth ; nor was there one that fluttered 
a wing or opened his mouth and peeped, in protest ; so 
terrified were the poor, helpless victims of his rapacity. 
The cruelty of this simile is only equalled by its appro- 
priateness ; but it hardly surpasses in either respect 
figures used in the Assyrian inscriptions. Thus, e.g., 
Sargon says that he " hooked the Ionians like fish from 
the midst of the sea " (Schrader, KB, II. 42 f.) ; and Sen- 
nacherib, that he " shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem, his 
capital, like a bird in a cage " (id. 94 f.). How and where 
did Isaiah become so familiar with the Assyrian style? 

15. Jehovah replies, Doth the axe, a mere instrument, 
vaunt itself over him that wieldeth it ; by whose strength 
and skill it is made to do whatever it does ? The idea 
is ridiculous ; but it is not more so than that any man, 
however exalted his station, should claim to be his own 
master. This is the argument. The succession of 
figures that follows is intended merely to add to its 
impressiveness. The first one, that of the saw, simply 
forms a parallelism with the one just quoted. In the 
last two, which also form a couplet, the idea of the first 
two is exaggerated ; for, the rod is presented to the 
imagination, not merely as asserting its independence, 
but as actually brandishing him that uplifteth it,* and 
the staff as uplifting that which is not wood, i.e., its 
living, intelligent wielder. 

* For "Pima nXl read WIS fiK. 



X. i6-i8] 



COMMENTS. 



233 



1 6. The power of Jehovah being thus established, it 
remains to indicate how it is to be displayed. A first 
statement says that he will send into his, Assyria's, fat, 
his overgrown prosperity, a consumption, adversity; so 
that, as the invalid loses his flesh, the nation shall 
be stripped of its greatness. The completion of the 
figure is found in v. 18, the latter part of which 
should be transferred to this connection. See xvii. 4. 
According to a second figure, under his glory, the 
splendor of his greatness, shall be kindled a burning, 
a destroying agency ; which shall be as fatal to that 
greatness as the burning of fire to the fuel by which it 
is fed. 

17. This fire is not a blind, impersonal physical 
agency. It is nothing less than Jehovah, who will, 
at the same time, be the Light of Israel, cheering and 
blessing them with his favor (ii. 5), and a fire, bringing 
disaster and destruction to their enemies. The figure 
is carried out as in ix. 17. The fire first attacks his 
thorns and his briers, inflicts slight damage. For the 
final phrase, see v. 18. 

18. At last, however, it reaches his forest and orchard, 
the more substantial elements of his greatness ; and they 
disappear in a day. The rest of the verse is foreign to 
this connection, being the misplaced development of 
v. 16 a. Soul and body means, completely.* 

* It is hardly necessary to defend the changes made in the text of w. 16- 
18. It is perfectly clear that soul . . . wasteth disturbs the connection in 
which it now stands, and that v. i6# is incomplete without it. Nor can 
there be any doubt that the phrase in a day should be inserted after 
orchard, so as to give to the two phrases which it now separates the same 
force as in ix. 17/18. These changes having been made, the verses ought to 
be rearranged so that v. 17 would begin with Also under, and v. 18 with 



234 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 19 



19. The result of the conflagration predicted will be 
that the remaining trees of his forest shall be so few in 
number that a boy can write them : his power will be 
reduced almost to extinction. 

The confusion in the text of the last verses of this 
section weakens the impression that they would other- 
wise produce ; but, when it has been corrected, one can- 
not help feeling that they still fall far short of being 
worthy of so forceful a writer as Isaiah. Moreover, 
toward the last, one begins to feel that the situation 
implied in v. 9 has been lost sight of, and a different 
one substituted for it. These considerations make it 
probable, that, as is held by several recent critics, 
vv. 16-19, and perhaps v. 15, were not called forth by 
the exigency that Isaiah had to face, but by a later con- 
dition of things from which God's people were thus 
encouraged to expect deliverance. Probably, also, as 
Cheyne claims (IBI> 79), the conclusion of the original 
prophecy is the fragment found in xiv. 24-27, the form 
and content of which indicate that it belongs with the 
Isaianic portions of this chapter. The present state of 
the text may be explained by supposing, that, after 
Isaiah's prophecy had served its immediate purpose, 
so much of it as could be used to advantage was 
incorporated by a later writer into one bearing upon a 

and it shall burn; i.e., if the division into verses is to be retained. The 
passage, thus rearranged, would read as follows : 

16 Therefore will the Lord send into his fat a consumption; soul and body 
shall it destroy, and it shall be as when a sick man wasteth. 17 Also under 
his glory shall be kindled a burning like the burning of fire; yea, the Light 
of Israel will be a fire, and their Holy One a flame; 18 and it shall burn and 
devour his thorns and his briers, also the glory of his forest and orchard, in 
a day. 



X. 19-22] 



COMMENTS. 



235 



similar situation, and the rest left to stand as a separate 
utterance. What the new situation was will become 
clear in the paragraph that follows. 

(c) The Liberation of the Remnant (vv. 20-27) — * s the 
subject of this third section. It is wholly in the inferior 
style of the last four verses of the preceding. 

20. The remnant, therefore, cannot be the survivors 
of an Assyrian invasion, but must be they that escape 
from the later situation with which the remodelled 
prophecy has to do. The character of this remnant is 
first described. They shall no longer, as the nation, 
notably in the case of Ahaz' appeal to Assyria (2 Chr. 
xxviii. 20), had done, lean upon their smiter, a helper 
who will finally do them more harm than good, in short, 
any human ally ; but shall lean upon Jehovah, who was 
himself the smiter in ix. 12, faithfully, fully and forever. 

21. Will, then, the writer seems to ask himself, or 
imagine somebody asking him, the people be saved ? 
He replies by quoting the promise contained in the 
name of Isaiah's eldest son, A remnant shall return ; 
adding, by way of interpretation, to Mighty-lord, the 
head of the restored nation (ix. 5), and vice-gerent of 
the Almighty (Hos. hi. 5). Comp. Orelli. 

22. A second promise occurs to the writer, — the one 
given to Abraham (Gen. xxii. 17), repeated to Jacob 
(Gen. xxxii. 12), and quoted, as a stimulus to faith, Hos. 
ii. 1 (i. 10);* and he quotes it in support of the first 
one. Surely, he says, if, as Jehovah promised our 
fathers, thy people, 0 Israel ! are to be as the sand of the 

* Hos. ii. 1-3 (i. 10-ii. 1) is probably, as recent critics claim, an inter- 
polation (Giesebrecht, BJ, 212 ff.), but its date is immaterial in this 
connection. 



236 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 22-24 



sea for multitude, — and who can doubt that the promise 
is to be fulfilled ? — a remnant thereof shall, must neces- 
sarily, return.* If, now, the verse, thus far, is not a 
threat, but a promise, the rest of it cannot refer to 
Israel, but must be interpreted as an announcement of 
judgment upon their enemies. Their Destruction is de- 
creed; onrushing against them is the retributive right- 
eousness of Jehovah. f 

23. The last statement, also, is fortified by a quota- 
tion. This time, however, it is a passage, slightly modi- 
fied, from one of Isaiah's prophecies (xxviii. 22), to 
which there are allusions in the book of Daniel (ix. 
26 f. ; xi. 36). The passage, in its original connection, 
was a threat launched at the drunken rulers of Judah. 
Here it becomes a prediction of the fate, — destruction, 
already ordained, — of the enemies of the chosen peo- 
ple, and, indeed, of the whole earth, the entire heathen 
world. % 

24. In view of this decree, Jehovah encourages his 
people that dwell in Zion not to fear Assyria. Here 
are two expressions that might be interpreted as betray- 

* The usual interpretation introduces into the text an only for which 
there is no warrant, and thus destroys the connection between this and 
the following verse. 

t This is the natural rendering. The order of the words in the first part 
is reversed in the second for the sake of variety; as often in the Old Tes- 
tament (Prv. iii. 16). One is tempted to translate pin, active. On ^plttf 
and its meaning, see Jer. viii. 6; and on HplSt, Isa. v. 16. Comp. De- 
litzsch. 

X This final phrase, from which, by the way, b^, whole, is omitted in 
some codices, is an indication of lateness of date. The appearance of its 
equivalent in xxviii. 22 cannot be cited in proof of the contrary, since 
the pKn ^3 bv, upon the whole earth, of that passage is clearly an inter- 
polation. See Duhm. 



X. 24, 25] 



COMMENTS. 



237 



ing the hand of Isaiah. There is, however, the same 
reason for caution in this instance as in the case of 
v. 12. Here, too, the style is too prosaic to be Isaiah's. 
The reference to Egypt, also, is significant ; for all the 
passages, outside of this chapter, in which there are 
reminiscences of the Exodus, are of Exilic or post-Ex- 
ilic origin. See iv. 5 ; xi. 15; but especially xliii. 16 ; 
xlviii. 21; li. 10; lxiii. 11. On the whole, then, it is 
safest to conclude that Assyria is here, as in v. 12, a 
symbolic term ; and that the phrase, that dwell in Zion, 
indicates the post-Exilic origin of the passage. When 
it was written the Jews were suffering from the cruelty 
of their masters, probably the Persians ; but they are 
exhorted not to lose heart though the rod and the staff 
be uplifted against them after the manner of Egypt; 
though they be treated with the same severity as were 
their forefathers by the Egyptians (Ex. i. 13 f.). 

25. They are further encouraged by being assured 
that it will be but a brief moment, a very short time, 
before Jehovah's vengeance,* not upon his own people, 
as v. 5 has led many exegetes to suppose (Delitzsch), 
but, as the context and such parallel passages as Eze. 
v. 13 require, upon their oppressors (see also Eze. vii. 
8 ; xx. 8, 21; Dan. xi. 36), shall be completed. The 
last clause of the verse is a repetition of the promise, f 

* For DDT, vengeance, read, with Lowth, ^UT, my vengeance. 

t The text has DiTbsn bv lit. and my aitger upon their ruin; 

which is interpreted as meaning that the wrath of Jehovah will be directed 
to the destruction of the Assyrians; but it is doubtful if the clause will 
bear this interpretation. Luzzatto, dividing the last word into Cff %n, 
renders the whole, and my anger against the world, the nations oppressed 
by Assyria, shall cease. Delitzsch suggests that a better rendering of such 
a text would be, and my anger against the world, the sinful world repre- 



238 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 26, 27 



26. The final stimulus to faith is an appeal to history. 
Jehovah (the third person) will brandish over the op- 
pressor a scourge, and smite him as when Midian (ix. 
3/4) were smitten by the Ephraimites at the rock Oreb 
(Jud. vii. 25). He will again manifest the power, which, 
when Moses extended his staff over the sea, wrought 
the overthrow of Pharaoh's host (Ex. xiv. 26); and thus 
punish Egyptian cruelty (v. 24) after the manner of 
Egypt.* 

27. Thus his burden, the oppressive exactions now en- 
dured, shall be removed . . . and his yoke, subjection to 
his will and authority, broken. f See ix. 3/4; xiv. 25. 

(d) The Decisive Hour(vv. 28-34). — The final section 
pictures the fulfilment of the promise of deliverance. 
It consists of a dramatic fragment of a genuine proph- 
ecy, to which are added a few lines containing a varia- 
tion, by the editor, upon the figure of vv. 18 f. 

The fragment by Isaiah begins with the abrupt and 
startling announcement, He hath come up into Benja- 
min!} The subject is the Assyrian invader. He is 

sented by Assyria, shall be fulfilled ; but he does not adopt the emendation. 
The following expresses even more closely than Luzzatto's text the thought 
that must have been in the mind of the writer : T'^zr and 
my anger shall accomplish his ruin. The first change is the restoration 
of two letters that would easily be omitted by a scribe ; the second, the 
correction of a suffix to bring it into harmony with the context. For a 
similar expression, see Ps. lxxiv. 12. 

* For IKEttl E'H b)2 'HuS, lit. and his staff over the sea and he shall up- 
lift it, Winckler, A U, 176 f., suggests $2F □ITT'S VIES, his staff over them 
shall he uplift. See v. 24. 

f For bz.r', and shall be broken, read, with Duhm. blTT, shall be broken. 
WRSmith {four. Phil. 1884, 62 f.) prefers bliT, shall cease. For the last 
three words of the text, see the next section. 

X The text has "£2 b'J, yoke on account of fat. The preceding 



X. 27, 28] 



COMMENTS. 



239 



moving from the less elevated region of central Palestine 
into the highlands occupied by the tribe of Benjamin, 
which, with the tribe of Judah, constituted the kingdom 
of Judah ; in other words, he is invading Judah. 

28. His route from the northern boundary of the 
kingdom to the capital is described. He first comes to 
Ayyath, or Ai, near Bethel (Gen. xii. 8), the first town 
in the interior of western Palestine captured by Joshua 
(Jos. viii. 1 ff.). He destroyed it, and, when Jos. viii. 29 
was written, it remained deserted. It had now been re- 
built, perhaps fortified for the protection of the northern 
border of the kingdom. The location of the city is dis- 
puted. Robinson (BRP, II. 312 f.) favors a site in the 

word bom, shall be broken, is generally connected with this phrase, but 
it is needed to complete the line preceding. Moreover, another line is 
wanted, not at the end of v. 27, where it would be redundant, but at the 
beginning of v. 28, where there is a fellow for it. Now it is plain that the 
phrase quoted cannot, in its present form, have any reference to what fol- 
lows. It is, therefore, without doubt, corrupt; and a better reading must 
be found if possible. No help is to be got from the versions. Hence 
critics have been forced to resort to conjecture. WRSmith (/our. Phil. 
1884, 62 f.) suggests that the text be amended to read ITtf rbo, 
There hath come tip from the north a destroyer, and it is probable that the 
first word is correct; but the other two find so little support in the recog- 
nized writings of Isaiah, that they can hardly be considered a satisfactory 
solution of the problem. Duhm substitutes for them ^£>%from Pene- 
rimmon, or from before Rimmon. To this it may reasonably be objected, 
not only that it leaves the movement without a starting-point (Skinner), 
but that one could hardly speak of going up from Rimmon, which was 
situated on a conspicuous eminence (Robinson, BRP, I. 440, III. 290), 
to Ayyath. The reading above adopted, f&^S nb»I7, seems less objection- 
able. In the first place, it is not too unlike the present text. Secondly, 
it furnishes the name that would most naturally head such a list as is given 
in this passage. Finally, it is favored by the fact that Benjamin actually 
occurs in a passage in Hosea (v. 8) so similar that it may well have sug- 
gested this one. 



240 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 28, 29 



neighborhood of Kudeirah, just south of Deir Diwan ; 
but van de Velde (SP, II. 278) prefers Tell el-Chajar, a 
little north of the same village, and this seems to be the 
more reliable identification. The next place is Migron, 
probably the modern Makrun, a ruined village south of 
Deir Diwan, on the way to Mikmash, now Mukmas, 
just north of Wady Suweinit, a deep valley (1 Sam. xiv. 
13) which begins at el-Bireh (Beeroth) and runs into 
that of the Jordan. 

29. Here the Assyrian is represented as depositing 
his baggage, his heavy stores and surplus munitions ; as 
well he might, before attempting the rough task of 
getting his army over the passage through the valley 
just described to Geba, now Jeba, on the opposite side 
(1 Sam. xiv. 5), which Asa fortified (1 Kgs. xv. 22), and 
which, in the time of Josiah, marked the northern fron- 
tier of Judah (2 Kgs. xxiii. 8). Here, about five miles 
from Jerusalem, his army makes its bivouac. With 
break of day he is again astir. Meanwhile the people 
in his front are smitten with dismay. Ramah trembleth. 
Several places bearing this name are mentioned in the 
Old Testament. This is the one usually designated as 
Ramah of Benjamin. Whether it is the same with that 
where Samuel lived and died is disputed. The trend of 
opinion seems to be toward the negative. See Conder, 
TJV, II. 116; Riehm, HBA, art. Rama. The one here 
meant, now er-Ram, was situated on a high hill, near 
another road to Jerusalem, about two miles west of 
Geba. Nevertheless, its inhabitants quaked, when they 
saw the Assyrians in motion. They of Gibea of Saul, 
now Tuleil el-Ful, although they too were off the direct 
route, in their terror left their little city and fled. 



X. 30-3 2 ] 



COMMENTS. 



241 



30. Gibea was a little more than two miles from Jeru- 
salem. Gallim and Laish must have been in the vicinity, 
and, since the cries of the former could be heard at the 
latter, near each other ; but their sites have not yet been 
recovered.* 

Anathoth, a priestly city (Jos. xxi. 18; 2 Kgs. ii. 26), 
the home of Jeremiah (Jer. i. 1), now Anata, lay on the 
direct route of the Assyrians, about half-way between 
Geba and Jerusalem. See Geikie, HLB, II. 1 59 f. It 
is not strange, therefore, that it fainteth,| helpless with 
terror. 31. Madmen ah, according to Valentiner (ZDMG, 
xii. 169) is to be identified with Shafat, about two miles 
west of Anathoth. Its inhabitants flee, not knowing 
whither, while those of Gebim, whose site is unknown, 
hurry away their cattle, just as the Hebrews were in- 
structed to do on the eve of the Exodus (Ex. ix. 19). 

32. The prophet sees the goal reached, this very day 
he will halt, take a position, at Nob, a priestly city, 
where the tabernacle for some time stood (1 Sam. xxi. 

* The former is mentioned also I Sam. xxv. 44. The name Laish oc- 
curs in the same passage, but as that of a person instead of a place. So, 
also, 2 Sam. iii. 15. 

t The text has .1*317, which has been taken as an attributive (Alexan- 
der), or an appositive (Delitzsch), of the noun following, or a proper 
name, the !T3317 of Neh. xi. 32 and the Bethany of the New Testament 
(Henderson); but the later exegetes, following the Peshita, generally pre- 
fer to read answer her. This would do, if the division between vv. 
30 and 31 were correct. As a matter of fact, the line to which this word 
belongs makes a couplet, not with the one that precedes, but the one that 
follows it. This being the case, it is more probable that the sentence was 
a declaration, than that it was an exhortation. On the other hand the 
adjective afflicted does not seem perfectly to fit the connection. The word 
needed is the H317 of xxxi. 4, and the form, the 3d sing, fern., HnStf, which 
may be rendered cower eth, or, for the sake of assonance, as above, fainteth. 



242 



ISAIAH. 



[X. 32-XI. 1 



iff.). It must have been very near Jerusalem; other- 
wise the prophet would not have thought of it as the 
base of the invader's operations against the city. It was 
probably on Mt. Scopus, the ridge, about two miles dis- 
tant, that commands it on the north. From this point, 
looking down upon it, he will shake his hand against, 
threaten, the mount of Zion the fair,* i.e., as is explained 
in the final clause, the hill, or cluster of hills, of Jerusa- 
lem. On the view from this point, see Geikie, HLB, 
II. 156! 

33. The Assyrian against the northern horizon recalls 
the figure of the forest. This time, however, it is not 
to be destroyed by fire, but Jehovah will lop the foliage 
with which it is decked with a crash (lit. terror') ; f and 
the lofty in stature, the towering trunks, shall be felled. 

34. Thus shall this Lebanon, with all its glory, fall by 
a more glorious one than he, Jehovah of Hosts, the Lord. 

The overthrow of the old is but a preparation for the 
establishment of 

(3) A New Order (xi.-xii.). — This was the teaching 
of Isaiah in ix. 1/2 ff. : it is now repeated. Moreover, 
as in the prophecy quoted, so here, the new order of 
things takes the form of 

(a) An Ideal Kingdom (xi. 1-10). — Here, however, 
the prophet's idea is more fully developed than it was 
when first imparted to his disciples. In the first place, 

a. the inspired king (vv. 1-5) — is portrayed in his 
character as well as in his achievements, r. He is to 

* The text, doubtless through a scribal error, has house. 
f For iTGBJfi Duhm reads axe ; but the introduction of the in- 

strument at this point weakens the figure. 



XI. I, 2] 



COMMENTS. 



243 



be a shoot from the stump of Jesse. The mention of 
Jesse in this connection has sometimes been supposed 
to contain a prediction, that, before the appearance of 
the promised ruler, the royal family of Judah would be 
reduced to the rank to which Jesse belonged when his 
son was chosen to succeed Saul (Calvin); but it has no 
such significance. Like the reference to Bethlehem in 
Mic. v. 2, it means simply that the future king is to be 
"of the house and lineage of David" (Luk. ii. 4). The 
comparison of the dynasty to a stump, however, indi- 
cates that Isaiah expected it to lose the remnant of its 
glory preserved by Ahaz, perhaps to be as nearly 
destroyed as it was by the wicked queen Athaliah 
(2 Kgs. xi. 1 f.). But the promised shoot, or, as he is 
called in the second line, sprout, shall bear fruit, restore 
to the royal house its lost vigor and regain its original 
power (ix. 6/7). 

2. The secret of his success is, that there shall rest 
on him the spirit of Jehovah, the source of all excellence 
in human character and achievement. This spirit has 
diverse operations (1 Cor. xii. 6); in this case in the 
same person. It is, first of all, the spirit of wisdom and 
insight, the source of the ability to discover the things 
which it is necessary for a successful ruler to know. 
Such a gift was bestowed upon Moses, and the elders 
appointed to assist him in the government of his people 
(Num. xi. 17). The same gift was possessed by David 
(2 Sam. xiv. 20) and Solomon (1 Kgs. hi. 12). See, 
also, the cases of Joseph (Gen. xL 38) and Daniel (Dan. 
iv. 8 f.). It will procure for its possessor the title 
"Wondrous-counsellor" (ix. 5/6). The same spirit will 
manifest itself as the spirit of prudence and might, i.e., 



244 



ISAIAH. 



[XI. 2-4 



the source of the wisdom for planning enterprises and 
the power to carry them into effect. These fruits of the 
spirit appear in the cases of Gideon (Jud. vi. 24), Saul 
(1 Sam. xi. 6), and David (1 Sam. xvi. 13). In the new 
David they will be so abundant, that, as ix. 5 /6 has it, 
men will call him " Mighty-lord," etc. There follows 
another pair of characteristics to which there is nothing 
in the previous prophecy to correspond, the knowledge 
and the fear of Jehovah. They are the most important 
that have been mentioned, for they furnish a guarantee 
that the others will not be misused. Being, through the 
spirit, made acquainted with Jehovah and rendered sub- 
missive to his will, the coming ruler can never, like 
Samson or Solomon, use his strength or wisdom for 
unworthy ends, but must always employ them for the 
realization of the highest ideals ; in other words, he will 
be a perfect instrument in the hands of Jehovah for the 
accomplishment of his purpose to make of Israel " a 
great nation." 

3. The knowledge and the fear of Jehovah, then, are 
not mere sentiments, but practical qualities. This is 
made perfectly clear by the fact that the rest of the 
paragraph is devoted to a description of a brilliant, but 
righteous government,* he shall not judge according to 
the sight of his eyes, from appearances, or the hearing 
of his ears, the testimony of others ; 

4. but, being gifted with extraordinary insight (2 Sam. 

* The declaration, his delight, also, shall be in the fear of Jehovah, 
must be excepted. It describes a pure sentiment. This fact, alone, makes 
its genuineness doubtful; but when one notices, also, that it makes an 
odd line, easily explained (Bickell) as a dittograph of the last words of 
the preceding verse, its ungenuineness seems established. 



XI. 4-6] 



COMMENTS. 



245 



xiv. 20; I Kgs. iii. 9), and thus being able to discern 
the truth, in spite of the attempts of their enemies to 
conceal it, in righteousness shall he judge those who 
were oftenest the victims of injustice, the lowly, not of 
the earth, — Isaiah's vision is not so wide as that, — 
but of the land, his kingdom. Comp. Henderson. On 
the other hand, he shall smite the violent,* the op- 
pressors of the weak, with the rod of his mouth, by a 
word bring about their punishment, perhaps without 
the intervention of an executioner. See Hos. vi. 5 ; 
Acts v. 5 ; comp. Zee. ix. 10. 

5. The description closes with the figurative state- 
ment that righteousness . . . and faithfulness, or un- 
changing righteousness, shall be the cincture t of his 
reins ; i.e., just as the girdle completes one's dress, and, 
when tightened, prepares one for action, so shall right- 
eousness, the fear of Jehovah in action, hold all his other 
qualities in their just relations, and fit him for the high- 
est possible efficiency in his divinely appointed office. 

The child of ix. 5/6 at last receives the title Prince-of- 
peace. So here, when the shoot of Jesse has delivered 
his country and destroyed its enemies, begins 

/3. the reign of peace (vv. 6-io). — 6. The peace- 
fulness of the new era is illustrated by a number of con- 
crete examples. Then shall the wolf, one of the worst 

* The text has ^Ttf, the land, which does not express the evident 
thought of the author. It is expressed by the word pTtf, the violent, 
which, moreover, occurs several times as a synonym of the term godless. 
See Jer. xv. 21. It is safe, therefore, to conclude, with Krochmal, that 
this was the original reading. Comp. Delitzsch. 

f In the text Tfftf, girdle, occurs twice. It is probable, as Duhm sug- 
gests, that originally the synonym TUP! was used in one line or the other. 



246 



ISAIAH. 



[XI. 6, 7 



enemies of the shepherd, because it usually attacks his 
flock at night (Tristram, XHB, 153), rest, lie peaceably, 
with the lamb ; and the leopard, still common in Pales- 
tine, an even more dangerous animal than the wolf, 
lying in wait for its prey and fighting for it, when neces- 
sary, with great fierceness (Tristram, XHB, 112), lie 
down with the kid, heretofore so often its victim. In 
these two pairs the wild animal is mentioned first, as if 
the prophet wished to emphasize the loss of its natural 
fierceness ; in the other two the disappearance of the 
natural timidity of the tame animals seems to be made 
prominent by reversing the order. The third pair are 
the calf and the young lion. The lion has now disap- 
peared from Palestine ; but it was formerly common 
(Jud. xiv. 5 ; 2 Kgs. xvii. 25 £.), and it remained in some 
localities as late as the twelfth century (Tristram, XHB, 
1 1 $ ff .). Its destructiveness to cattle is repeatedly re- 
ferred to (xxxi. 4; 1 Sam. xvii. 34; Am. iii. 12). Its 
nature is to be so changed that the calf will no longer 
fear it, but the two will quietly fatten * together. In 
that day men like David and Amos will not be needed 
to protect the animals from one another : it will be sport 
for a little child to lead them. 

7. A fourth illustration is added. The animals are 
The cow and the bear. The latter is not very frequently 
mentioned in the Old Testament ; but it was reckoned 

* The text has IfHfifl, and failing, but this can hardly be correct. The 
line, like the two preceding, should have a verb and only two nouns. In 
the Septuagint it is so constructed. It is therefore probable that this was 
the original construction in Hebrew. The only difficulty is in determining 
the precise verb that was used. Wellhausen, following the Septuagint. 
suggests feed, but there is more to be said for (Duhm) or 

'X^E" (Buhl), either of which might mean fatten. See I Sam. ii. 29. 



XI. 7, 8] 



COMMENTS. 



247 



among the enemies of the shepherd (i Sam. xvii. 34 ff.). 
It is now rare in Palestine, except in the region of 
Mt. Hermon (Tristram, NHB, 46 ff.). These two are 
to company,* live together in harmony ; together shall 
their young lie down, as calves and cubs do while their 
mothers are feeding about them.f 

8. Nor is this all. The serpent, to the Hebrew the 
most repulsive and malicious of all God's creatures, is 
to become the harmless plaything of its hitherto in- 
voluntary enemy, the babe shall delight in, perhaps 
trow over, the glittering, and, according to the ancients, 
paralyzing eye % of the asp, or, perhaps, as Tristram 
{NHB, 270 f.) inclines to think, the cobra, the species 
of serpent most frequently used by charmers; and 
toward the viper's (Tristram, NHB, 275 f.) sparkling 
pupil (Prv. xv. 30) shall the child, as children naturally 
do, when they see anything attractive, with impunity 
stretch its hand. 

* For J^inn, feed, read, with Lagarde, firyinn, as in Prv. xxii. 24, 
where it is rendered make friends. This change makes the addition of 
another THiT, together (Lowth), unnecessary. 

f The text has an additional line, and the lion shall eat straw like 
oxen. It cannot, however, belong here. (1) It has no place in the rhyth- 
mical scheme of the prophecy, being, like the first line of v. 3, without a 
mate with which to form a distich. (2) It brings back an animal that has 
already been disposed of. (3) It produces confusion in the thought of 
the paragraph. In all the rest of vv. 6-8, as one would expect, it is a 
change in the disposition of the animals mentioned that is predicted; here 
it is a change of habit, involved, perhaps, in the preceding statements, but 
beyond the prophet's present purpose. In lxv. 25, on the other hand, it 
creates no particular difficulty. Hence that is probably its original setting. 

% The word bfl literally means hole, but the use of it in Can. v. 4 in 
the sense of window, and the occurrence of a word for eye in the next 
line, seem to warrant one in concluding that here it denotes the opening 
through which the animal looks. 



24S 



ISAIAH, 



[XI. 9 



9. It is evident, that, while painting this picture, the 
author of it had in mind the ideal conditions under 
which another equally gifted writer depicted the race 
as beginning its existence (Gen. ii. 18). The teaching 
of the passage, therefore, is, that, as in Eden, so under 
the reign of the king of the future, the animals will be 
what they were intended to be, one and all the harm- 
less and docile companions of man. Comp. Henry. 
If, however, the animals are to be so changed, will the 
new regime have a less happy effect upon the restored 
nation ? The question does not require an answer ; but 
one, whether by Isaiah, or some later seer, it is difficult 
to determine, is given.* They, probably the people, shall 
not hurt (2 Sam. xx. 6) nor destroy one another, in all 
my holy highlands, i.e., as the parallel line shows, Ca- 
naan. Before its occupation by the Hebrews it is desig- 
nated " the highlands of the Amorites " (Deu. i. 7), and 
later, "the highlands of Judah and . . . Israel" (Jos. 
xi. 21). It is here called holy because it has been 
chosen by Jehovah for his servants and worshippers. 
See Jer. xxxi. 23 ; comp. Alexander. The reason for 
this blissful state of things is given : the land through 
the agency of the same spirit by which its ruler is in- 
spired, shall be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as 
completely as the water covereth the bed of the Sea. 

* Cheyne thinks the conclusion that this verse is of late origin irresist- 
ible, but none of his arguments seems so decisive. He exaggerates the 
difference in rhythm between this and the preceding verses; and, in arguing 
fur the lateness of the phrase my holy mountain, overlooks the fact, that 
in this case it is modified by all, and that therefore most of the passages 
cited by him are beside the point. Duhm seems much more convincing. 
It certainly is not perfectly apparent who or what are not to do evil; 
moreover, the word my sounds strangely in the connection. 



XI. io, n] 



COMMENTS. 



249 



All, without exception, by obedience to his precepts, 
will recognize Jehovah as their God, and the effect of 
this their righteousness will be peace and security for- 
ever (xxxii. 1 7). 

10. The final touch was not given to this picture by 
Isaiah. He did not see the entire breadth of Jehovah's 
purpose ; but, when his prophecy had done its work in 
sustaining the faith of his people during the Assyrian 
crisis, and had long been cherished as a proof of the 
divine faithfulness, some one whose heart Jehovah had 
touched boldly read into it another promise of deliver- 
ance, and supplemented it with the declaration, that the 
restoration of Israel would be the prelude to the salva- 
tion of the world. He boasts that the root of Jesse is to 
become a signal to the nations ; so that, as a tall tree 
growing on a hill becomes a landmark and a rallying- 
point for the surrounding country, the future ruler will 
attract the peoples, and they shall come to him for in- 
struction in the knowledge of the true God (ii. 2f.); 
and his abode, Jerusalem, enriched by their treasures as 
it was not even in the days of Solomon, shall be glori- 
ous. See i Kgs. x. i ff. ; Isa. lx. 5 ff.* 

(p) The Restoration of the Outcast (xi. 11-16) — was 
another article in the faith of Exilic and post-Exilic 
times. It is the subject of a second supplement to 
the original prophecy. 

11. The section is introduced by the same phrase as 
the preceding verse, in that day. It is the day when 
Jehovah, having driven his people of both kingdoms into 
exile, in mercy will restore them to favor. Then he will 

* Compare the interesting but mistaken rendering of the Vulgate. 



250 



ISAIAH. 



[XI. II, 12 



a second time, the first being on the occasion of the 
Exodus (v. 16), put forth * his hand to redeem Israel. 
This time, however, the redeemed will be but the rem- 
nant of his people, viz. those that are left, when they are 
summoned from the countries into which they have been 
driven. Eight such countries are enumerated. The 
first are Assyria and Egypt. They are the two whose 
names are used by Hosea (xi. n) in a similar prophecy, 
and probably the only ones originally mentioned in this 
passage. See v. 15. The first of the added names is 
Pathros, Upper Egypt, whither some of the Jews escaped 
after the destruction of Jerusalem (Jer. xliv. 1). Isaiah 
could not well have referred to it as a distinct country. 
He did not distinguish even between Egypt and Kush, 
Ethiopia, for the reason that, in his time, both countries 
were under the same government. See xviii. 1 ff. ; f 
xx. 3 ; xxx. 2. After these two western, two more 
eastern countries are added, Elam, at the head of the 
Persian Gulf, whose capital, Shushan, became the prin- 
cipal residence of the Persian kings (Neh. i. 1), and 
Shinar, Babylonia. The last two are Hamath % and the 
countries on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea 
(Gen. x. 5). 

12. When the time comes to fulfil his purpose, Jehovah 
will uplift a signal to the nations. This time, however, 

* The text has ^"EV, add, after which, as in Num. xi. 25, a verb, e.g., 
is to be supplied, or a second time, changed to flT, set (Ex. 

xxiii. 1), or hXtf?, raise (Eze. xx. 5f.). 

t The point of the reference in this case is not in the name Kush, 
which, as Duhm asserts, is doubtless a gloss, but in the fact that Ethiopia 
here represents the dual empire of Tirhaka. 

X For hOh Cornill (ZA W, 1884, 93) proposes to read Kh»HX, Egba- 
tana, here Media (Ezr. vi. 2). See 2 Kgs. xviii. H. 



XI. 12-14] 



COMMENTS. 



251 



they will be commissioned, not to destroy (v. 26), but to 
restore the outcast of Israel . . . and the scattered * of 
Judah, from the four quarters of the earth, all parts of 
the East and the West. See xlix. 22. 

13. One of the means by which God's people were 
permitted to destroy themselves, was internal strife 
(ix. 17/18 ff,). After the restoration there will be noth- 
ing of the kind. Then shall the envy of Ephraim, by 
Judah, depart, and the vexers of Judah, in Ephraim, be 
destroyed. On the other hand, Ephraim shall not envy 
Judah, nor shall Judah vex Ephraim. In other words, 
the two nations will be reunited in a single common- 
wealth, and henceforth live in peace and amity, f 

14. The reunited people, however, will not be content 
with anything less than the possession of the entire 
Promised Land, they shall pounce, like a bird of prey 
(Hab. ii. 8), upon the shoulders, in modern parlance, 
backs, % of the Philistines westward, together shall they 
plunder the sons of the East, the wandering tribes of the 
eastern desert. See Gen. xxix. 1 ; Jud. vi. 3 ; Jer. xlix. 
28; comp. Gen. xxv. 13. Their remaining neighbors, 
also, are to be subdued, — Edom . . . Moab . . . and 
the sons of Ammon ; and the boundaries of the kingdom 

* The word outcast, in the original, is masculine, while the word scat- 
tered is feminine. The change of gender does not mean that only males 
of Israel and females of Judah are to be redeemed; it is merely the 
Hebrew way of saying that both sexes will be represented among the 
returning exiles. See iii. I. 

f This interpretation, which is perfectly defensible, makes it unneces- 
sary, with Duhm, to pronounce the second distich a gloss. 

X For ^rD, so pointed because it was supposed to have indirect ref- 
erence to the geography of Philistia (Jos. xv. ii), read ^F?. Comp. 
Skinner. 



252 



ISAIAH. 



[XI. 14, 15 



of David thus reestablished. See Am. ix. 12. It is 
possible, perhaps, to harmonize this prediction with 
vv. 1-9, but it can hardly be reconciled with v. 10. See, 
also, ii. 2 ff . 

15. There follow two verses that continue the subject 
of v. 12, and therefore properly belong between it and 
v. 13. They describe the way in which Jehovah will 
bring the outcast back to their country. He will dry- 
up * the tongue of the Egyptian, i.e., the Red, Sea, as he 
did at the first exodus, and thus make a way for those 
who come from the West. For those who come from 
the East he will wave his hand over the River, the 
Euphrates, at the same time letting loose upon it his 
mighty wind, f and smite it into seven, i.e., a large num- 
ber of, streams, canals such as those into which it was 
actually divided for purposes of irrigation. It will then 
no longer be an obstacle in the way of the returning 
captives ; for one can cross it in sandals. 

* S'Hnn, in harmony with the Peshita and the Targum, for d^lffiT, lay 
under ban. 

f The text has HTH fi^S, which is usually rendered with the glow of his 
wind, i.e., his glowing wind. It presents various difficulties. In the first 
place, if the reading is correct, it is by no means certain that it has 
the meaning given to it. Secondly, if the word is correctly rendered, the 
phrase to which it belongs is evidently misplaced; since the Euphrates is 
not to be dried up, but smitten into streams so small that they will be 
easily passable. Finally, if the phrase belongs to the first line, it can 
hardly be an original part of it, since it lengthens the line out of all pro- 
portion to the others of the verse. It is necessary, therefore, with Duhm, 
to pronounce the whole a gloss, or explain or emend it so as to make 
it fit its present context. Krochmal, following the Septuagint, suggests 
in*"l Q2£I72, with the strength of his wind, i.e., with his strong wind; but 
since, in the record of which this is a reminiscence (Ex. xiv. 21), the ex- 
pression used is n*y mi, a strong wind, a more probable conjecture is 
irfH with th e same meaning. See xlii. 25 ; Ps. cxlv. 6. 



XI. I6-XII. 2] 



COMMENTS. 



253 



1 6. Thus there shall be a highway . . . from Assyria, 
as there was . . . from Egypt.* 

When Jehovah delivered his people from bondage in 
Egypt, they sang his praise on the hither shore of the 
Red Sea (Ex. xv.). So, also, when the ransomed return 
to their country, they will celebrate their redemption in 

(c) Songs of Deliverance (xii.). — The first effect of this 
new evidence of Jehovah's love will find expression in 

a. A song of faith (vv. 1-3). — i. It opens with a 
burst of gratitude, I will praise thee ; and the reason 
for it, although thou wast angry with me, on account 
of my sins, now that thy anger, being satisfied, is turned f 
(ix. 11), thou comfortest me. The first person is here, 
as in many at least of the Psalms, collective. The 
nation, as one man, confess their past disloyalty, and 
attribute their present happiness solely to the mercy of 
God. 

2. Their indebtedness to Jehovah finds further expres- 
sion in the glad acclamation, Lo, the God of my deliver- 
ance ! for it looks backward as well as forward. In fact, 
it is the experience of Jehovah's helpfulness in the past 
that warrants them in saying, I will trust and not trem- 
ble, be tormented by fear or uncertainty. Then follows, 
as a statement of the ground of this confidence, a quota- 
tion from the song of Moses (xv. 2): my strength, the one 
on whom I relied for strength, and therefore my song,{ 

* This verse is a remarkable example of the fondness of the Hebrews 
for assonance. Of the fourteen words of which it is composed all but five 
contain a sibilant. 

t The translation is intended to give the jussive I}'^, lit. let turn, a 
conditional force. See Ges. § 109, 2, b; comp. § 109, 2, b, R.; Dri. § 174. 
\ TH&T for m&T. Comp. Ges. § 80, R, 2, b. 



254 



ISAIAH. 



[XII. 2-5 



the object of my praise, was Jah,* i.e., as is explained in 
a gloss, Jehovah ; and he has not disappointed me, but 
become my deliverance. 

3. The Hebrews escaped from the Egyptians only to 
find themselves in danger of perishing with thirst ; but 
Jehovah came to their relief, and, throughout their 
wanderings in the desert, by one means and another, 
he supplied them with water. The prophet promises 
his people, that they, also, shall draw water with glad- 
ness from wells of deliverance, constantly rejoice in the 
presence of Jehovah as a deliverer. 

The second song prompted by the contemplation of 
the deliverance wrought will be 

/3. a song of praise (4-6). — 4. It is throughout 
hortatory. The people are exhorted to Praise Jehovah, 
and to call upon his name, i.e., recognize him as their 
God (Deu. x. 20; Isa. xxvi. 13). Nor are they to stop 
here. They are to make known among the peoples sur- 
rounding them his deeds, especially the manifestation 
of his power in their recent deliverance ; and thus most 
effectually proclaim that his name is exalted, that he 
deserves honor and worship above all other gods. The 
first two lines of this verse occur also in Ps. cv. 1. The 
last is found, slightly modified, in Ps. cxlviii. I3.f 

5. Extol Jehovah, for he hath wrought gloriously is 

* This contracted form of the divine name is rare except in the ex- 
pression it ten. EV, Praise ye the lord, in some of the later psalms. 
Jastrow (ZAW, 1896, 6f.) explains it as an artificial abbreviation of the 
name !T!T, Jehovah, which has here taken the place of the final letter of 
the preceding word. The Septuagint have nothing to correspond to it. 

f Bickell suggests that the original of the song had only the first and 
third of these lines, and that the second was involuntarily inserted by a 
copyist. Is it not, however, more probable that the third was added by 
a reader as an explanation of the second? 



XII. 5, 6] 



COMMENTS. 



255 



another reminiscence of Ex. xv. (v. i). The second line 
repeats the second of v. 4* 

6. The glorious things that Jehovah has wrought in 
themselves furnish a sufficient reason for the most exu- 
berant praise. Their significance, however, is not 
exhausted, when they are regarded merely as historical 
facts. In addition they are a guarantee for the future. 
This is the thought of the final exhortation to Shout and 
sing, sing lustily, addressed to the dwellers in Zion.f 
It appears in the causal sentence with which the verse 
and the chapter close, for great, in power as well as in 
goodness, in your midst, as a friend and protector, is 
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the Hebrews. J 

The future of God's people — this was the thought 
that lay on the heart, and busied the thoughts, both of 
Isaiah and the later prophet by whom the preceding 
chapters were put into their present form and order. 
There can be no doubt what they taught concerning 
it. They had to confess that the Israel of their day 
fell far short of deserving to be called the chosen of 
Jehovah, and that, therefore, it was not strange that 
they should have suffered from his displeasure ; but 
both alike believed with all their hearts, that this period 
of estrangement and misfortune was to be followed by 
a restoration to favor and prosperity, and they did what 
they could to hasten such a consummation. 

* For n»T)Q read, with the Masoretes, niTfifc. 

t The original has the feminine singular, inhabitress ; but this, like the 
word daughter in similar connections (x. 30), is doubtless equivalent to 
a collective. 

X On the date of this chapter comp. FBrown and WHCobb, JBL, 
1890, I. 128 ff. and 1891, II. 131 ff. 



INDEXES. 



I. TOPICS 

Additions to Isaiah : extent, 48 f., 
56 f.; character, 53, III ff., 
132 ff., 135 f., 141 f., 159 f., 169, 
204 f., 218 f., 234 f., 249; style, 
159, 234 f., 236; standpoint, 
135 f., 141. 

Ahaz, 31 ff., 36 f., 46 f., 82, 126, 130, 
171 ff., 186, 192, 193, 196. 

Amos, influence of, 16, 22, 96, 131, 
154, 204, 216. 

Anathoth, 241. 

Antithesis, 27, 134, 182 f. 

Arpad, 227. 

Article in Hebrew, 180. 
Ashdod, 39 f., 47, 50. 
Ashkelon, 41 f., 43. 
Asshurbanipal, 176. 
Assonance, 122, 241, 253. 
Assyria : 

character: avarice, 230; cruelty, 
231 f.; pride, 226 ff.; style, 232. 

government: governors, 226; trib- 
ute, 32, 38, 39, 42, 44, 209. 

history: relations with the He- 
brews, 35 ff., 227; with other 
peoples, 226 f. 

representative of the world-power, 
229, 236 f., 250, 253. 
Augurer, 116. 



TREATED. 

Ayyath, 239. 
Azariah. See Uzziah. 

Catchwords, 55, 196. 
Cedar. See Lebanon. 
Champion of Israel, 103. 
Chronicles, authority of, 36, 90. 
Chronology: difficulties, 32 ff.; table 

of Kings, 46 f.; of chapters i.- 

xxxix., 56 f. 
Constructio pregnans, 223. 

Diviner, 116, 124. 

Egypt, 36 ff., 187 f., 237, 250, 252 ff. 
Ekron, 41, 43. 
Elam, 250. 

Eltekeh: battle of, 41 f., 43 ; capture 

of, 43- 
Eponym Canon, 227. 
Errors in division of text : chapters, 

123, 136, 204; verses, 95 f., 97, 

112, 158, 203, 219 f., 233 f., 

241. 

Esarhaddon, 45, 47, 176. 
Exodus, references to the, 66 f., 78, 
80, 141 f., 237 f., 250, 252 ff. 

Feminine, uses of, 124, 251, 255. 



258 



INDEXES. 



Galilee, 206 f. 
Gallim, 241. 
Geba, 240. 
Gebim, 241. 
Gibea, 240. 
Gihon, 193. 

Hamath, 32, 35, 38, 227, 250, 254. 
Hanno of Gaza, 36, 38 f. 
Hezekiah, 22, 31, 33 f., 39 ff., 47, 82, 
186, 228. 

Holy One of Israel, 85, 153, 163, 255. 
Hosea, influence of, 16, 102, 239. 
Hoshea, 33, 37 f., 47. 

Iaudi, 32 f. 
Iaudu, 39. 

Idolatry, 101, 106, 117, 122, 228 f. 
Immanuel: his significance, 181 ff.; a 
contrast to the child of ix., 210. 
Infinitive absolute, 145, 200. 
Inspiration, 20, 56, 81, 161 f. 
Interrogation, 27. 
Isaiah : 

book: composition, 48 f.; arrange- 
ment, 49 ff.; date, 52; object of 
arrangement, 52 ff.; origin of 
collection, 54 f. ; twofold inter- 
pretation, 55 f. ; chronological 
table, 56 f.; topical table, 58 f. 

character: equanimity, 19 f., 
174 ff.; sagacity, 21 f., 200 ff.; 
hopefulness, 23 f., 136 ff., 207 ff. 

ideas: of God, 161 ff.; of religion, 
92 ff., 139 f . ; of salvation, 99 f., 
137 ff., 209, 245 ff.; of the Mes- 
siah, 214 f., 245 ff. 

life: birth, 16; standing, 16; call, 
17 f., 34, 160 ff.; end, 18, 45; 
age, 34. 



name, 81, 201. 

style: conciseness, 25 f.; vividness, 

27; richness, 28 ff.; freedom, 

30; importance, 31. 
work : duration, 17, 31 f.; method, 

18, 22; results, 18, 22. 
Israel, meanings of the name, 84, 146, 

216. 

Israel, the nation : its history, 35 ff. ; 
its kings, 46 f., 90 ff., 146, 171 f., 
216 ff.; its fate, 156 ff., 169 f., 
175 f., 184 f., 190 ff. 

Jacob, meanings of, 112, 115, 201, 
216. 

Jeberekiah, 191. 

Jehoahaz. See Ahaz. 

Jehovah of Hosts, 89. 

Jeroboam II., 34, 36. 

Jerusalem: used for Judah, 91 ; per- 
sonified, 89, 135. 

Jesus: his adaptation of Isaiah's 
parable, 30, 145; fulfilment of 
Isaiah's hopes, 215. 

Judah: origin, 185; extent, 34, 239; 
history, 39 ff . ; future, 123 ft., 
136, 187ft., I 93 ff -» 200. 

Judah and Jerusalem, 82, 109. 

Kalno, 226. 
Karkemish, 226. 
Kush, 250. 

Laish, 241. 
Lakish, 44. 

Law, the ceremonial, 96. 
Lebanon: cedars of, 120, 217; as a 

figure, 242. 
Lord, the divine name, 103. 



INDEXES. 



259 



Madmenah, 241. 
Magician, 125. 

Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 191 f., 201. 
Mamilla, Pool of, 173, 194. 
Manasseh, 18, 34, 45, 47. 
Menahem, 32, 35, 46. 
Metaphor, 26, 27, 30, 10 1. 
Meteorology of Palestine: rainfall, 

107; extremes, 142. 
Migron, 240. 
Mikmash, 240. 
Milucha, 40. 

Morals in Isaiah's time, 97 f., ioi f., 
128 ff., 148 ff. 

Necromancer, 1 1 7. 
Nob, 241 f. 

Oak, 120. 

Parable, 27, 143. 

Parallelism, 100, 112, 137, 152, 197, 
223. 

Paronomasia, 26, 85, 102, 1 17, 

146 f., 176, 194. 
Pathros, 250. 

Pekah, 35 ff., 46, 171 ff., 197 f. 
Pekahiah, 35, 46. 
Perfect in Hebrew, 208. 
Prophets: origin, 15; inspiration, 

20; office, 21, 125, 219. 
Psalm of Hezekiah, 49. 
Pul. See Tiglath-pileser. 

Ram ah, 240. 

Raphia, battle of, 38 f., 47. 
Relation of Jehovah to his people : 

paternal, 83 f. ; conjugal, 101. 
Resin, 35 f., 171 ff., 197 f. 



Rhythm, 30, 86, 90, 158, 203 f, 

229, 244. 
Ritual in Isaiah's time, 93 ff. 

Samaria, 37 ff., 47, 91, 227 ff. 
Sargon II., 38 ff., 47, 91 f., 205, 

226 ff., 232. 
Sennacherib, 20, 40 ft., 47, 50, 91, 

226, 228, 230 ff. 
Shabaka, 37 f., 47. 
Shabataka, 40, 47. 
Shalmaneser IV., 37 f., 47, 205. 
Shear-yashub, 19, 23 f., 172, 201, 

207. 
Sibu, 37 f., 39. 
Signs, 179 f., 185 f. 
Siloam: pool of, 193; tunnel of, 

193 f- 
Simile, 29, 30, 172. 
So. See Sibu. 
Soothsayer, 202. 

Tarshish, 121. 

Taylor Cylinder, 42 ff., 226. 

Terebinth, 107. 

Tiglath-pileser III., 32, 35 ff., 46 f., 

50, 187 f., 192, 205, 217, 227. 
Tirhaka, 40 f., 47, 188. 

Uriah, 191. 

Uzziah, 31 ff., 34 f., 46, 82, 117, 161. 

Vocabulary of Isaiah, 28. 

Waw consecutive, 118, 152, 191. 
Wealth in Isaiah's time, 34, 117. 
Wine, 87, 101 f., 149 f., 154. 

Zion, personified, 89, 140. 



260 



INDEXES. 



II. AUTHORS QUOTED. 



Aben Ezra, 1 80. 

Alexander, 130, 151, 162, 179, 204, 

241, 248. 
Aristophanes, 101. 
Ascension of Isaiah, 18. 

Bathgen, 212. 
Barnes, 120. 
Barth, 204. 

Baudissin, 86, 106, 107, 163. 
Beecher, 38. 
Bickell, 244, 254. 

Bottcher, 116; ALhrenl., 129; 

Lehrb., 195. 
Bredenkamp, 87, 125, 142, 172, 183, 

191, 199, 201, 202, 217, 225. 
Brenz, 116. 

Brown, 30, 1 19, 135, 255. 
Budde, 103. 

Buhl, 33, 88, 153, 164 2 , 172, 185, 223, 
246. 

Calvin, 167, 174, 243. 

Cheyne : IB I, 33, 49, 84, 86, 91, 10 1, 
104, 106, in, 141, 156, 176, 
184, 188, 196, 219, 222 2 , 227, 
234, 248; PI, 84, 87, 129, 141, 
164, 170, 196, 200, 211. 

Cobb, 255. 

Conder, 240. 

Cornill: PI, 22; ZA W, 55 2 , 196, 
250. 

Davidson, A. B., 180, 200. 
Davidson, S., 191. 

Delitzsch, Franz, 33, 87, 88, 100, 
105 2 , 1 10, 113, 116, 118, 125, 



126, 129, 133, 139, 142, 146, 

150, 151, 154, 158, 160, 163, 
1 64 s , 165, 173, 175, 180, 184, 
190, 193, 200, 202, 203, 209, 
212, 219, 220, 224, 236, 237 s , 
241, 245. 

Delitzsch, Fried., 40, 226, 227. 
de Dieu, 151. 

Dillmann, 88, 123, 142, 146, 170, 1 81, 

190, 195, 202, 203, 222. 
Doderlein, 105. 

Driver: Intr., 33, 90; Sam., 194; 

Tenses, 84, 118 2 , 119, 151, 195, 

216, 230, 231, 253. 
Duhm, 28, 94, 97, 99, 101, 103, 104 2 , 

no, in, 115, 116, 118, 119 2 , 

126, 127, 135, 136, 137, 141, 

151, 152, 153, 156, 158, 160, 
164, 165, 177, 178, 180, 191, 
196, 199 2 , 204, 208, 219, 221, 
228, 231, 236, 238, 239, 242, 
245, 246, 248, 250, 251. 

Duncker, 33. 
Durell, 104, 153. 

Eichhorn, 132, 138. 

English Version, 81, 105, 137, 151, 

204,211; AV,\\i; PV,igo. 
Ewald: lehrb., 108, 213; PAB, 83, 

121, 151, 176, 222. 

Frere, 101. 

Fiirst: Cone, 103; KAT, 23. 
Geikie, 241, 242. 

Gesenius : Com., 99, 121, 138, 147; 
Gram., 84, 85, 87, 89 s , 97, 100, 



INDEXES. 



261 



ioi, 103 2 , 106, 117 2 , 118 3 , 119 2 , 
122, 124, 128 2 , 131 2 , 132 5 , 135, 
142, 145, 153, 164, 167, 168 2 , 
174, 176, 180, 181 2 , 183, 195, 
198, 200 2 , 203, 204 2 , 205, 208, 
213, 2 1 6, 218, 223, 224 2 , 230, 
231 2 , 253 2 ; Thes., 175. 

Giesebrecht, 156, 235. 

Guthe: ZDPV, 174; Z/, 213, 226. 

Hackmann, 90, 104, 141, 169, 187. 
Henderson, 89, III, 113, 162, 172, 
177, 193, 202, 223, 228, 241, 245. 
Hengstenberg, 139. 
Henry, 85, 113, 118, 152, 248. 
Herodotus, 45. 

Hitzig, 89, 100, 109, 1 10, 123, 147, 

153, 164, 194, 217, 225. 
Houbigant, 217. 

Jastrow, 254. 
Jerome, 138. 

Josephus: A J, 38, 88; /JV, 173 2 , 
207. 

Kamphausen, 33. 
Kautsch, 141. 

Kay, 118, 124, 132, 179, 183. 
Kellner, 59. 
Kimchi, D., 180. 
Kittel, 33, 176. 
Klostermann, 36, 171. 
Knobel, 121, 153, 180. 
Kocher, 142. 
Konig, 176, 213. 
Koppe, 48. 

Krochmal, 116, 208, 220, 245, 252. 

de Lagarde: Acad., 224; Sem., 54, 
108, no, 115, 122, 172, 177, 
217, 218, 219, 247. 



Layard, 37. 

Lowth, 88, 116, 132, 134, 142, 225, 
247. 

Luther, 105, 148, 21 1. 
Luzzatto, 115, 147, 175, 204, 211, 
237 f. 

McCurdy, 33, 37, 38 s , 40, 45 s , 227 s . 
Menander, 38. 

Meyer, 33, 38, 40, 45, 188, 227. 
Michaelis, J. D., 89, 99, 217. 
Mitchell: Amos, 5, 16; AR t 186. 
Muhlau and Volck, 81, 175. 
Miiller, 100. 

Nagelsbach, 93, 113, 128, 130, 139, 
140, 164, 177, 181, 190, 192, 
193. 

Olshausen, 87, 213, 230. 

von Orelli, 85, 90 2 , 93, 107, 1 15, 
126, 139, I47> *53> I54» l6z > 
180, 191, 194, 201, 210, 216, 

235- 

Peshita, 105, 130, 132, 166, 224, 241, 

252. 
Peters, 133. 
Piepenbring, 167. 
Porter, 186, 198. 

Ragozin, 32, 38, 41, 44, 158, 189, 

227 s , 230. 
Rawlinson: SAE, 188; SP, 38. 
Reuss, 127, 139, 183. 
Riehm, 116, 149, 150, 158, 189,202, 

240. 

Robinson, 173, 194, 239 2 . 
Roorda, 139. 
Rosenmiiller, 125. 



INDEXES. 



262 

Saadia, 115. 
Scheid, 892. 
Schrader : KA T, 32*, 37 s , 38 s , 39 s , 

40 2 , 42, 82, 171, 176, 226, 227 4 ; 

KB, 32 2 , 37 3 , 38 2 , 39 s , 40, 42, 

45, 209, 226, 227*, 230 2 , 231, 

232; KGE,$2. 
Schroder, 133. 
Seeker, 221, 225. 

Septuagint, 84, 86, 94 s , 95, 101, 105, 
106, in, 115, 118, 123, 128, 
129, 130 2 , 132, 140, 141, 142, 
148, 166, 168, 169, 175, 181, 
- 197, 204, 211, 216, 217, 225, 
231, 246 s , 252, 254. 

Siegfried and Stade, 87. 

Skinner, 102, 124, 205, 223, 239, 
251. 

Smith, G., 151. 

Smith, G. A., HGHL, 188, 206; 

Isa., 156, 164. 
Smith, W., 116, 133, 149, 158. 
Smith, W. R. : /P, 238 f.; PI, 22, 

86. 

Stade: GVI, 45, 174, 194; ZAW, 

132, 141. 
Studer, 80. 



Targum, 106, 121, 128, 139, 142, 252. 
Thenius, 149. 

Thomson, 89, 106, 120, 142, 144, 

217, 220. 
Tiele, 37, 38, 40, 41, 227. 
Toy, 181. 

Tristram, 89, 107, 120, 183, 246 s , 
2473. 

Umbreit, 180. 
Usher, 32, 34. 

Valentiner, 241. 

Van Lennep, 113^ 132, 134, 136, 

144, 183. 
van de Velde, 240. 
Vitringa, 83, 112, 121, 128, 183. 
Vulgate, 84, 86, 105, 132, 191, 249. 

Weir, 89. 

Wellhausen, 246; SV, 213. 
Wickes, 86, 90, 94, 155, 199. 
Wilson, Warren, etc., 173, 194. 
Winckler: AF, 33; AU, 37, 4c 2 , 
118,175,227,238; UAG,&. 

Zwingli, 139. 



III. PASSAGES INCIDENTALLY EXPLAINED. 







PAGE 






PAGE 


Gen. 


ii. 1 8, 


248 




is. xi. 23, 


175 


Ex. 


iii. 12, 


186 




xii. 10, 


205 




xiv. 21, 


252 


~2lQ 


rs. v. 4 (iv. 24) 


206 




XV., 


253 ff- 




xv. 29, 


205 


Lev. 


xxiii., 


95 




30, 


33 


Jos. 


viii. 20, 


94 




33» 


33 



INDEXES. 263 





PAGE 








PAGE 


xvi. I, 


33 


Jer. 


xlvi. 8, 




231 


S> 


171 


Eze. 


xxii. 21, 




212 


6, 


36 


Hos. 


ii. 1-3 (i. io-ii. 


Oi 


235 


xvii. 4, 


37 




v. 8, 




239 


xviii. I, 


36 


Am. 


ii. 8, 




154 


IO, 


33 




9ff., 




2l6 


13. 


33 




v. 20, 




204 


xviii. 13-xix. 37, 


44 f- 


Mic. 


iv. 1 ff., 




uoff. 


xviii. 13-xx, 21, 


48 f., 55 




v. 2, 




24O 


xix. 29, 


186 




3, 




2IO 


xx. 20, 


194 




4, 




212 


xiv. 24-27, 


234 


Zee. 


iii. 8, 




137 


iv. 16 f., 


89 




vi. 12, 




137 


xv. 5, 


157 


Ps. 


xlix. 3/2, 






21, 


245 




lxxiv. 12, 




238 


xxiii. 5, 


137 f- 


Can. 


v. 4, 




247 


xxxiii. 15, 


137 f. 


Mat. 


i. 22 f., 


179. 


182 



IV. HEBREW EXPRESSIONS DISCUSSED. 



jhn, lord, 
, mx, man 
hit, not, 
hit, lord, 



PAGE 

103 

, mankind, 118 
167 

t, God, 



ni, purity, flux (?), 
create, 
S"h>, district, Galilee, 
mm, zV $&z# come 

to pass, 
p*n, vision, 
be heavy, 



212 
104 
141 

206 

109 
81 
205 



Pi 

man 1 ?, 
is:, 



TP 

P ^ 
no Sy 



PAGE 

honor, wealth, 150 
y^r, 146 
every, 87, 142 

& 93 
proclamation, holiday, 94 f. 
watch, 89 
£00*7, continuance, 213 
therefore, 1 56 

mfcy, 1 79 

young woman, 1 79 

restraint, festival, 95 



